A Week in Kobe

The week has come to an end and I'm relaxing at home enjoying the quiet life with my family. I tend to sit down and write my blogs or edit my vlogs once my son has gone to sleep for the night and the house is a little more mellow.

During the past week i've taken and posted many pictures to my Twitter. These are just a few I took with my iPhone.


I took this picture on Thursday evening on my way home from work. This was taken close to Kobe City Hall in Sannomiya.


I took this picture on Friday morning on my way to work in the morning. I got of the train close to my school and instead of walking along the main road, decided to zig zag through some smaller back streets (always more interesting in Japan).


A Korean restaurant in Sannomiya in Kobe, Japan. I ate at this place last year with my wife. The food was fairly decent as was the decor. The price was pretty high though!


I saw Tom and Jerry painted on an old wall close to an auto repair shop in Kobe earlier in the week.


I have worked a part time job on Saturdays for the past two years. This is a scene from JR Sannomiya Station platform this morning (Saturday) at 8:40ish in the morning.


Last night (Friday) I took a little time after work to wander around Sannomiya in downtown Kobe to capture some of the sights and sounds. I put together a video last night about what the city (at least this part) looks like on a Friday evening as people head home from work or head out for the night.

Friday Evening in Japan:


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Random Kobe Stuff

I was just posting some pictures to Facebook and came across some odd signs I've spotted in Sannomiya. For anyone who has ever lived or traveled to Asia, bizarre signs are nothing new, but they are still always fun for me. Seven years in Asia and I still feel like a big kid every time I see one! A few times in the past when I've made posts like this, a few people have complained, "After being here for a few years I don't care about that!" I suppose for those crusty folks, their inner child has been stepped on!


This just doesn't seem like a good name for a restaurant. IIt doesn't make me want to come in. when I think of fine dining, ketchup normally isn't involved.



Is this a CSI bar??? Not extremely bizarre, but caught my attention nonetheless.



I suppose this could mean many things. My mind was in the gutter when I looked at it .....giggle, giggle.



Again, this just seemed like an odd thing! Bring your baby here to have needles inserted.

Kobe at night

Kobe 神戸 is a small and beautiful city. I really enjoy living here. It's the fourth city I have lived in while in Asia and is by far my favorite. the seasons are changing and things are cooling down. The nasty heat and humidity that is the Japanese summer is gone and Fall is quickly approaching.

Here is a little video that I quickly put together showing Sannomiya 三ノ宮 (the downtown) at night. I plan to reshoot a similar video once I upgrade to a better camera.

An Autumn Evening in Japan

Curry in Kobe

Who says that filling mailboxes with advertisements and leaflets doesn't work? last night we found one in our mailbox for an Indian restaurant in Sannomiya called Aarti. Man....it looked good. So we made the team decision (team...as in my wife and I) to go there this afternoon for lunch. So off we went earlier today to Sannomiya and just behind JR Sannomiya Station, we found Aarti. A great feast was then had!


Here is Aarti Indian Restaurant, located just behind JR Sannomiya Station. Look for Nishimura Coffee and there's a little road between it and a pachinko place. It's about a block up the road, just after the AM/PM convenience store.



Some great lunch specials. I had the 1000Yen one!



Here's my plate. 3 types of curry and rice. There was nan bread to follow as well.



My wonderful wife had spinach curry. I've never seen or tried spinach curry before, but it was really good.



The nan bread was HUGE and tasted so great. They had an oven at the entrance of the restaurant and a guy was stationed there making fresh bread.



When all was said and done, this is what my plate looked like. It was a true feast.

My wife's only complaint was that she would have preferred the curry to be a little spicier. Myself, I am a true wuss when it comes to spicy food (even though I lived in South Korea for 5 years),so I was content with a milder curry.



Oh yeah...another H1N1 case!
Another student confirmed to be infected with new flu; 4th case in Japan
TOKYO —

Another male student who arrived at Narita airport from the United States on Friday was confirmed to be infected with the new flu strain, the health ministry said Sunday, bringing the number of cases of new flu in Japan to four.

The student was on board the same flight as a teacher and two other students who were confirmed Saturday to be Japan’s first cases of the new strain of the H1N1 influenza A virus.

A further 48 passengers and crew who were on the Northwest Airlines flight are being monitored at an accommodation facility near the airport for 10 days and the health ministry is conducting follow-up checks on all the other passengers.Read more...(Japan Today)

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.