Yesterday I went to Kobe to visit some friends of mine – fellow Austrians. We did not do anything exciting, just strolling along the harbour a bit, dropping in to an exhibition of photographs taken by sailors all over the world (there was a stunning picture of a crescent sun rising over the ocean – we guessed it was taken during a solar eclipse, but we were not sure), and we looked at the city from the viewing platform of Kobe city hall, which is located on 24th floor.
I did not find the city very exciting, it’s rather typical modern Japanese. Kobe is a very old city, and its biggest attraction are some very old houses built in Western style, that form a small neighborhood close to the mountains. My friends said, however, that it would be interesting only for Japanese – apparently the whole city has a somewhat “Western” feeling to it, and the Japanese come here when they want to feel a bit exotic. As I said, to me it seems like an average Japanese city though…
We had dinner together – chili con carne – and we drank and talked and enjoyed the view from their 10th floor apartment… it was nice to speak in Austrian again. I left with the train shortly after 11 (one of the last ones) and when I arrived in Kyoto more than an hour later, I found out to my horror that the last buses in my direction also leave shortly after 11… By that time, the drizzle to which I had left Kyoto had stopped, so I walked home. I arrived around 1:30 – and consequently spent half of today in bed.