On the first day in Japan I woke up to watch us pull into port. There was a boat sailing around that was spraying water at least 20 feet into the air. I assumed it was welcoming us to port, but there is also the possibility that there was just a broken pipe that was going crazy. Anyway, I met Alexa around 10:00 and got in line to get off the ship. Neither of us had anything to do that day, so we decided just to walk around Kobe together. The line for immigration was really long and we didn’t make it out until around 11:30 because they were taking down our fingerprints. They had already taken our temperatures before we had gotten off of the ship, otherwise it probably would have taken a lot longer.
We decided just to walk around. We stopped for lunch before doing anything else. We walked down some stairs to a restaurant. At first we weren’t sure if it was open because the sliding door was closed, but the waiter noticed us and invited us in. Later we found out we were supposed to ring the doorbell. At the table they had a call button that we were supposed to press when we wanted our order taken. It was very loud, so we were a little afraid to press it. I ordered some kind of noodle dish, which I think may have been ramen, and we got some edamame.
After lunch we walked around the city. A one of the weirder things that I had heard we needed to do while in Japan was to go to a convenience store. So we stopped in one and bought some candy. They had an entire no smoking section of the city, which I thought was interesting. We tried to find the Old Foreign Settlement, but we couldn’t find it and ended up walking in circles. Every time we saw a sign pointing to where it should have been it said it was about 50m away, but then it wasn’t there. Eventually we gave up and went to see a shrine instead. Shrines were everywhere and I am not sure what the one we visited was called because it was written in Hiragana. It was getting a little rainy and it wasn’t too crowded, so we were able to look around and take lots of pictures, which I will be able to post in a couple of weeks when I am home.
It was Cherry Blossom season, so there were lots of blooming trees around, which were really beautiful. I have always loved Cherry Blossoms!
I had made a plan to meet Liz and Matt back at the ship and then head out for dinner. Along the way we stopped at a waffle stand, where we met Liz. The stand said Belgian Waffles, but there was a long line of people, so we figured they must like them there. Turns out they were pretty good, though I am not sure what made them Belgian.
We stopped by the ship to get Matt and then we all headed out to dinner. After searching for an ATM for about an hour (turns out there were only a few ATMs that would work for US cards), we found a place to eat in an underground restaurant mall. Liz and I were the only ones who knew we liked sushi, but we all decided to go to a sushi place anyway.
After dinner we went to the sweet shop section of the restaurant mall. I don’t think anyone bought anything, but we tried some free samples and walked around staring at all the amazing food. If it had been allowed back on the ship, I definitely would have bought an entire chocolate cake to eat.
Afterwards we got some boba tea and then went back to the ship before watching Top Gear and going to bed.
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