Kobe, Kyoto and Osaka Japan

The ship docked at noon today at Kobe, which is also the gateway to nearby Kyoto, and Osaka.
Kobe is situated between the mountains and the sea. It is the fifth largest city in Japan and the capital city of Hyogo prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshu. It has a population of about 1.5 million. Kobe was one of the first cities to open for trade with the west following the end of the policy of seclusion and has since been known as a cosmopolitan port city.
In 1995 the great Hanshin earthquake diminished much of Kobe‘s prominence as a port city, but it remains Japan’s fourth busiest container port. The city is the point of origin and namesake of Kobe beef, as well as the site of one of Japan’s most famous hot spring resorts Arima Onsen. Kobe is also the gateway to Kyoto, Japan’s ancient imperial capital and the nation’s cultural and spiritual center, as well as Osaka.
Kobe is known for producing Wagyu beef of which is comprised of four different breeds of cattle, all raised in a specific way. Wagyu beef is among the most expensive meats in the world. It features marbling streaks of fat within the red meat that make it tender and moist, while adding flavour. Wagyu beef is known by different names depending on its place of origin. Examples include Matsusaka beef, Kobe beef from the Tajima cattle, Yonezawa beef and Ōmi beef. In recent years, Wagyu beef has increased in fat percentage due to a decrease in grazing and an increase in the use of feed, resulting in larger, fattier cattle.
Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan but now is the capital city of Kyoto prefecture in Japan. The city is a centre of higher learning in the country and its institutions include Kyoto University, the second oldest university in Japan. The original city was arranged in accordance with traditional Chinese Feng Shui, following the model of the ancient Chinese capital of Chang’an Luoyang. The Imperial Palace faced south, resulting in Ukyo being on the west, while Sakyo is on the east. The streets in the modern day wards of Kamigyo-my, Nakagyo-ku, and Shimogyo-ku still follow a grid pattern. Areas outside of the city do not follow the same grid pattern. Those streets throughout Kyoto are referred to by name, a practice that is rare in most regions of Japan. Osaka is the largest of the three cities in the Keihanshin region with a population of 2.7 Million.
Today, instead of taking one of the six shore excursions on offer, we had planned to meet up with Craig and Yuriko, who were going to give us a tour around Kobe and Kyoto. Well at least, that was the plan. We boarded a bus that was scheduled to stop at our meeting point and were shocked to find out that our bus was the only one of three buses that reversed the order of the stops, to help minimize congestion. We were quite upset, made even worse by the frustration of having a difficult time figuring out how to connect with Craig. Craig was very gracious and suggested that we just wait until the bus left and came to the gardens where they were, and he and Yuriko would still be waiting. Once arrived, we walked briefly around the gardens and, not having nearly the time we had hoped for to be together, we found a restaurant where we sat for about an hour and a half catching up on both sides of the family. We needed to be back on the ship by 6 o’clock that night and had planned to take a taxi back to port, but they were adamant that they drive us personally, which turned out to be a great idea because between the four of us, we couldn’t flag down any cabs.
We did have a lovely visit and showed pictures back-and-forth. As we were leaving, I stopped a lovely young lady and asked that she take a picture of us at the table. Before leaving we exercised the necessary caution of using the washroom and had another opportunity to take a picture of the complicated control panels for Japanese toilets. Not at all the day we had planned, but pleased to have had the opportunity to meet with them in person.
Dinner that night was a shared table in the Prime 7 restaurant. The entertainment was a folkloric performance of the Taiko Drum Show. A very energetic, colourful and rhythmic show.Read more