A Night in Japan

Last night I decided to take my Sanyo Xacti HD and run downtown to film some of the spots I pass through while training for my upcoming marathon. I plan to make a few more similar videos since I run in many areas of the city. I filmed in the Motomachi area around 8:00 pm (Saturday night). Some comments on my video poked fun at my "running." I will clearly state that I ran downtown and then slowly meandered around shooting video. Then I ran back home!


Some of the cool sights and sounds in a slow part of Kobe on a Saturday night.

Someone commented on the video about "showing us the action"! I honestly never run in the crowded areas where the action is! I, like most runners, stick to quiet areas with as few intersections and traffic lights as possible to maximize the running distances.

Magnolias in Kobe

Yet another sign of Spring in Japan. The magnolias are Blooming around Kobe. I took these pictures earlier in the week (I am vacation and have ample time to photograph flowers) in Motomachi.

I took this picture across the street from the Starbucks close to the entrance to Chinatown. In the background you can see the old American Consulate (I believe it is a big and tall clothing shop now).

It was an overcast and dreary day, but I was still happy to have the time to frolic through the streets, taking pictures of very "Un-masculine" things!

I ate deer today!

I suppose, normally, when I go out to eat in Japan I eat Japanese food. In a very simple way, that makes sense. Of course I really enjoy other types of food as well.

Today my wife suggested eating Italian food. Actually, it was slightly more than a suggestion. She had Italian on the brain and who was I to argue? My wife has great taste and had already planned our afternoon together.

we went to and area of Kobe called Motomachi. we ate at an Italian restaurant called Osteria Gaudente. It is located under the train tracks in Motomachi, just across from the Motomachi Station Police Box. It was an absolutely brilliant lunch. The restaurant had a very cozy and warm atmosphere. The decor felt very European and the waitress who served us was very attentive and efficient. The Italian chef was also attentive! Between cooking dishes, he mingled through the restaurant speaking Japanese to the clientele and even bused our table!

My wife at pasta with tomato and mozerella sauce. I had fussili with deer sauce! That's right. Venison as we say in Canada. It was pasta with a VERY delicious deer meat and tomato sauce.


Here is the really awesome salad that started the meal off. We both had the lunch set that only goes for 1000¥ (about $10). The best part of the salad, for me, was the crunchy pieces of renkon (the honeycombed shaped vegetable).


Here you can see the deer meat pasta. It was tender pieces of a deer from Hokkaido (Northern Japan) in a tomato sauce with freshly grated cheese. It was very delicious.


This is the outside of the restaurant. It is located in a narrow alley under the train tracks in Motomachi. it is directly across from the Motomachi Police Box. There is another brach of this restaurant in Umeda, in downtown Osaka.

Japanese Golden Week ゴールデンウィーク

It's been a year since I first came to Japan. I arrived here last year, a few days before Golden Week ゴールデンウィーク and Japanese Golden Week begins yet again, today. That's right, it's vacation time. Eight full days away from class. It's a time to relax, sleep late, consume malt beverages and study some Nihongo and other things.

Here a video I made about my one year anniversary in Japan:
A Year in Japan



A piece of randomness:

I was looking from a free Kansai weekly paper and saw this. Actually my wife spotted it and pointed it out to me. Not the best selling point for a house I think!


I was in KALDI on Sunday looking for some peanut butter when my wife's keen eye noticed this. By the way, KALDI is a coffee shop that sells loads of foreign food items. There's one located in Motomachi in Kobe (close to Chinatown). So, I picked up a jar of Skippy Peanut Butter and this wine.

It's Sakura Wine. That's right, cherry blossom wine. There were actual cherry blossoms at the bottom. We tried it last night with dinner and both didn't like it. It was far too sweet. It actually tasted like liquid candy. I've never been a fan of sweet wines, but this one reminded me of bubblegum in a bottle...with flowers.


You can see the two cherry blossoms up close. Seemed like a great novelty item!


Ume Tonkatsu!

Just before we purchased the wine, we stopped for lunch in a small restaurant in Motomachi. They had some great eats for low prices. I tried the Ume(plum) Tonkatsu. It was basically deep fried pork cutlet covered with salty plum sauce. It was really crispy (how i prefer my tonkatsu) and the sauce added a very interesting and enjoyable flavour. This was a definite treat for me! The meal also came with a bowl of steamed rice and udon soup.

China Town Snacks and St. Paddy's in Kobe

For all of you out there who are not on any sort of vacation,let me first begin this post by apologizing. I am now officially on vacation and started the whole thing by going to work this morning. What? That's just plain stupid Kevin! Yes...I realize that, but I had to tie up a few loose ends I left on Friday. By 11:00am I was on my way to downtown Kobe and, more specifically, Chinatown.

I simply love little outings to Chinatown. Whether with my wife or by myself, a chance to sneak off to Chinatown for some great street food always puts a smile on my face. Kobe's Chinatown is known as Nankinmachi and is located in the Motomachi area of downtown. STreet food is plentiful and affordable; a great combination.

At lunchtime today, I went there for something called Guo Bao. In a nutshell,Guo Bao is a steamed bread and sweet pork sandwich. I've read about it online and some folks refer to it as a Taiwanese pork sandwich.

Here's what the little beauties looked like. They were 400yen each at this shop, but I bought mine for 200yen at another shop further down the street.


Good stuff.


I of course took the time to make a short video blog about the occasion.

Kobe Eats: Kevin eats Guo Bao

Check out the original here.


I'm tossing around the idea of doing a more frequent food based vlog. Of course my BusanKevin channel is all over the place, but I'd like to do more food-type vlogs.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. From what I gather, aside from a parade in Tokyo yesterday, it's not really much of an event here. I'm sure at the local foreigner pubs, there will be a lot of folks, but I'll celebrate at home with a can or two of Guiness.


Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

I'll be off to Korea on Wednesday morning so I promise to take a lot of cool footage and post some entertaining vlogs on my You Tube Channel.

When YouTube Gaijin unite!

Another day on vacation, another day to sleep a little later than usual. Good stuff, but I did get up relatively early. There was some editing to do on some footage I took the other night when we were out at a Korean restaurant. It's been a long time since I've had some decent Korean food soI was pretty pleased to have some great "gamjatang" 감자탕 (spicy pork and potato soup) and "pajoen" 파전 (green onion pancake). You can see the finished product here:

Some Great Korean Food

The restaurant is called "Salongbang" and is located in Sannomiya, downtown Kobe. It was a little pricey, but apparently Korean food normally is in Japan.


Today was also quite cool because I had a chance to meet another fellow You Tube vlogger. "Marlogum" came down from Nagoya with his wife Antonette. they have been spending a few days traveling around Kansai and stopped by Kobe this afternoon to see some of the sights and say hello. I acted as their tour guide for the afternoon and had a very cool time hanging out in Motomachi, Meriken Park as well as Ikuta Shrine.


Here's what Ikuta Shrine looked like this afternoon. This tree is a decoration for "Oshogatsu" 正月 (Japanese New Year). There will be a big countdown celebration there on New Year's Eve.

I took some footage of us all hanging out together in Kobe this afternoon. If time allows, I'll edit something together and post it here later this week.