Chuo-ku

BEEF! Enough said.

I know I have a tendency to watch where I spend, and what I spend on, but stopping in Kobe was a treat for me. As much as you'd think I would have to convince Jack to come along, she did so without any objection, knowing how excited I was about it. Sounds silly to be this excited about beef, but for me it was more than just beef, but rather about what it meant - I have traveled a lot this year, I've been to many incredible places, and now I'm in Japan, I'm in the area that produces Kobe Beef, beef that I've heard of and wanted to try ever since I was in South East Asia but did not have the chance. I'm half way across the world and I'm going to enjoy a really good steak!

Arriving in the afternoon, we took our time getting to our hotel because we happened to be near the sake breweries. Like, an entire quarter of them! We were hoping for a tour but apparently it's busy season so no tours were given (I also don't think there would have been any in English...) Instead we stopped by a sake brewery for a quick tasting and informational video. Sake wasn't too bad! Basically tasted like hard liquor without the throat burn.

Our hotel was in this same area - just to set the mood, this area was purely industrial, basically breweries. As you walk through the sliding doors, there's a poster of different "interesting" outfits one could rent. It was basically all characters or Christmas outfits that left little to the imagination. There was a free pop machine, free popcorn machine, free candy, we scored! There's even this touchscreen reservation thing - we assumed it was to keep all anonymity when checking into this obvious love hotel. Love hotels are famous in Japan where people commonly rent rooms by the hour for obvious reasons... We had to pick up the "help" phone since non of the touchscreen check in options were written in English. A minute later down comes this lady running from upstairs, apologizes 10 times for keeping us waiting, confirms our reservation, then looks very confused as if to say "I wonder if they know what they're walking into", and gives us our room key. Our room was absolutely amazing! Huge TV, fluffy queen bed, huge tub and shower room (toilets are often in separate rooms here), even a massage chair! Thankfully the massage chair was made of leather, we assumed it had been disinfected, the lounging chair on the other hand was made of suede and we avoided sitting on that... Parents and grandparents stop here - but to top it all off, they even had one of those massive plug-in vibrators! It had a plastic bag over it, just like the drinking glasses, as if to say "I've been cleaned". Amazing.

After spending an hour being amazed by our room, which was a free upgrade from the standard room I had actually paid for fyi, we made our way to Chinatown - a friend told me that's where you go for the beef! On our way we spotted these signs showing off some "illumination" route, and along the street are these white barriers with a huge crowd walking along, following the instructions of our famous "people traffic" controllers. Literally thousands of people walking in a line, following instructions... I've never seen such order. We joined of course, this many people going somewhere must mean good things! Along the way, Jack found the lack of illuminated buildings boring and was struggling with the idea of following a group blindly. She's more of an improviser, not a rule follower. So we bicker a bit, since I'm convinced following what I'm told is always the right way, and we found a middle ground. We followed the same route from outside the barricades, ha! Shows them! And our plan eventually failed of course, hitting a dead end where one must be in the barricades to continue. Only now, we could see the amazing point it was taking you to! This huge structure all covered in a ridiculous amount of Christmas lights. I had to get closer, but the japanese and their rules... The security guard, or people traffic controller, wouldn't let us through the barricades, even though this was an open point with people exiting, because we had to start from the begining. Yep, rule followers, you can't go in through this open space because you have to follow the line from the beginning... So we acted confused, said we were in the line up but had to exit momentarily, came up with different excuses, and finally I think he just gave up, let us through. Score 1 for the annoying white girls. Only the pictures can really describe what we saw - a ridiculous display of beautiful Christmas lights, and I love me some Christmas!

Now back to Chinatown, beef! Finally! We start walking around, we end up repeating some streets over again, I couldn't make up my mind on where to go... There were cheap street options that I thought wouldn't allow me to fully enjoy the beef while standing, and probably not the most authentic. There were restaurants that charged up to 8,000yen depending on the size and quality you wanted... I didn't expect the cheapest option to 2,500yen for 80g, I assumed that would be a sliver of beef for a lot of money... All these options and thoughts started racing in my mind and I was getting overwhelmed. This brought me back to Nairobi when I ran to the hotel and burst into tears... I couldn't think clearly, I wanted to cry, I wanted scream, all because of silly beef. Jack, who knows me a little too well, and who is amazing at reading me, brought me back to earth. I really don't give her enough credit for how she treats me in my less logical moments. As much as she couldn't care less about beef, she calmed me down, found a place that looked busy - which meant known for good food, and got us a table. Turned out to be the best choice! Tepanyaki, I got to look at my steak before they cooked it, take photos because everything in Japan is made for more photo taking... It was perfect. Once seated and with a clear mind, I decided fuck it - let's go all out. We made it into a 4 course meal, had some wine, enjoyed ourselves! Jack made fun of me because of my amazement of being able to cut through the beef in our stew with my front teeth in one chomp. The "medium rare, on the rare side" steak was mind blowing. Again to think, me, in Japan, currently eating, having Kobe Beef, in Kobe, Japan. Crazy.Meer informatie