Kobe is less than a half hour by train from Osaka but has a totally different vibe - more industrial and newer, obviously, since most everything had to be rebuilt after the 1995 earthquake.
The first thing we did was follow the crowds to the shrine where everyone was waiting in line to pray. See the shinto priest in the foreground?
Then they were tying their wishes to this tree.
We were hoping to see some yakuza (Japanese mafia) in Kobe since the largest family, the Yamaguchi-gumi, is based there. Either they weren't so obviously dressed and styled as they are around here or they weren't out and about at the tourist sites:) We did see this Japanese graffiti though!
We ended up in Chinatown.
We could tell because this is what greeted us.
We got a little lost while looking for the sake brewery and came across this cleverly named basketball store.
Incidentally, we did find the sake brewery and it was pretty interesting. There were videos in English to help explain things. Then we bought some sake to drink on the train and headed down to the waterfront.
The architecture of the maritime museum is pretty spectacular.
Makes for a nice skyline along the port, no?
As a bonus there was a big ship docked down there. We love old ships, especially John.
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