Kobe Grocers

We finally had a day with no fixed commitments, so we decided to stroll around the Kitano area of Kobe. It's near our hotel and we remembered the streets being quite interesting with many little cafés and unique shops. Well, were we surprised. Most of what we remember is gone, replaced with high rise apartment/condo buildings all densely packed together.

Some of it was still familiar, though, and at one point, JO C said she thought we were close to Kobe Grocers. This was a small grocery store that stocked a lot of imported food, which gave it a strong following among the ex-pat community.

For years, we'd go there every couple of months, stock up on lots of items unavailable elsewhere, and they'd deliver it to us on Tuesday evenings. If we had bought frozen items, they would keep them in their freezer for us until Tuesday. Customers in Kobe had daily delivery, but the store only delivered to Nishinomiya once a week.

Here we were, back in their neighborhood. We hadn't planned to go there; we don't need imported groceries from them anymore, but once we realized we were close, we decided to see if it was still there. We rounded a corner and saw their yellow awning and knew we'd found it.

In we went and one of the owners, who was in the store at the time, recognized us right away, as we did him. We were having a nice chat when we commented that the interior looked very different, with wider aisles and new upright freezers. It felt more spacious. He told us something shocking: three years ago, they had had a fire! Everything was destroyed. We were very sorry to hear that. The exterior still looks the same, but the interior is all new. We were glad to hear that everyone was safe and that they had been able to recover. What a shock that must have been for them.Read more