Kobe

Well intentioned, we headed off early at 8:30am to head to Kobe for the day. When we got to the metro there seemed to be an issue and the trains weren't arriving. After a long delay, a train turned up with no one on it and then firemen were inspecting the train. There were many announcements in Japanese and some people left but some were still waiting. Eventually we decided to try another way and got to Shin-Osaka to get the Shinkansen to Shin-Kobe station. When we finally arrived (10:30am - it should have been about a 30 min total trip) we realised the Herb Garden and Ropeway were shut for maintenance 😭 we instead headed to the Earthquake Museum. We had a fantastic time here, made better by a wonderful guide who offered to tour us around a section of the museum and explain the practical activities where the instructions were written in Japanese. She made our visit so much better! The other exhibits had been translated and we could use an audio guide and tablet guide combo. We also got to experience what walking in tsunami waters is like. The museum was really quiet, despite being a free entry day that I had no idea about! Tickets are usually ¥600 per person. We then made our way to Steakland for a late lunch. We had tender beef and Kobe tender beef cooked in front of us and served with rice and grilled veggies. Yum! We could tell the difference between the steaks and the quality of the meat was outstanding, really glad we made the trip here. Total was just over ¥10,000 but worth it in our opinions! We then headed out to the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum. This was an extremely pictorial museum with videos explaining the process of making sake, I was quite impressed given that it was free. At the end we got to taste some sake! The Yuzu and plum were out favourites. We also paid to sample some premium sakes and also had an amazake (fermented rice drink) soft serve icecream which was yummy! With tired feet, we headed back to the main station and got a JR express train back to Osaka, getting back at about 6:30pm. A huge but really enjoyable day!Read more