[Japan Travel]: Kobe - Day 1 (part 1)
Okay,
after the last few random entries, let's continue with photos of my winter vacation (*_*)
After Fukuoka I went to Kobe. It was my first time in Kobe and I enjoyed it really a lot. I also didn't know that Nara, Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe are THAT close to each other. It's really convenient and MAYBE I wanna live there one day (but then again, Kyushu (Nagasaki etc.) would be nice as well) [/random blabbering
]
Kobe has SOME similarities with Nagasaki (and some of you might remember that I REALLY fell in love with Nagasaki). It also has a port that was opened for foreign ships during the Meiji era, so even nowadays there are some foreign styled buildings, Catholic churches etc. :)
That day was kind of eventful, so I have to split it into 2 entries again (over 100 photos in one entry would be too much, right? XD
)
Here we go:
Kobe - Day 1 - part 1
(January 2nd, 2010):
Late at night I arrived at my hotel. It was FREAKING cold in the room!!!! (x____X) .... took quite some time to warm up as well.
Not as cold as the house of my coworker, though, where I could see my breath
I got up quite early and walked all the way to my first destination. I liked the signs with flowers and stuff that were everywhere (*_*)v
Well, I was walking through the "Flower Road" anyway XD So I took the chance to take photos of some flowers :)
And as always: gully cover XD
As some of you might know Kobe is quite famous for sweets and bread. I even saw this college on my way.
While walking, I also saw the fancy tourist bus. Looked like some of the tourist buses in other cities :)
Some of the various sightseeing spots of Kobe are shown here XD Cute!
And that's one of the best things I came across!!!!! A Starbucks in an old Western・style building!!!!! WOOT!!! Unfortunately they were still closed when I passed by ;o;
More info here (thanks to pikapikaman
)
Finally I arrived at my destination: Kitano-chou. It's a part of Kobe with a high concentration of Western-style houses, some dating back to the days when Kobe was opened for foreign trade in 1868. Europeans who grew up in similar scenery may find them less fascinating. (<- uhm, yes, agreed!
)
What you see on the photo above is the "Panama Consulate" (旧パナマ領事館). In front of it is a "tourist information center" where you also can buy tickets. I got a pass that allowed me to visit almost all of the main attractions. If you plan to do so anyway, it's cheaper if you get the pass and it's also a nice souvenir (furthermore you can stamp your pass for each destination you went to - yeah Japanese people seem to LOVE stamps ...)
Inlcuded in the pass was also this: dressing up like a European woman, but ... uhm... you know ... I'm European plus it was FREAKING COLD, so I didn't do it XDDDD
It was allowed to take photos inside the houses as well, so of course I did - like crazy! XD
Some things were interesting, but mostly it was just plain Western-style, so not REALLY THAT interesting for Westeners XD
Nevertheless I'll keep posting photos of the inside as well, so you can judge by yourself if you wanna go there and enter if you ever get the chance to do so XD
That's obviously the "English House" XD ...........
Really kind of boring, but the other Japanese tourists loved it! They also could dress up as Sherlock and take photos XDDDD
English breakfast (ugh...), of course that's plastic XD
These were kind of cute ^-^
Tea time! I like the sunlight in this picture :)
Awesome clock is awesome.
And at the exit (of the ENGLISH house) I found a GERMAN (verrrryy old) stove!!! Even with German text on it XDDDD Funny!
That must have been "Ben's House". He was a hunter so there were a lot of stuffed animals.
I loved the plates, though. They were beautiful. This one looks like it could be from Germany.
And here we go. Kind of freaky.
That's scary, but it's a beautiful wolf (*_*)v
This one was free and there was also a toilet XD But I liked the outside view a lot, so I took some photos.
Inside was a small photo exhibition. That's Kobe at night (*___*)v
I was able to take some nice night photos of that place as well, but no firework XD
Random: Momiji hakken! (*___*)v
Probably you've all heard about the really strong Hanshin earthquake in Kobe in 1995 .....
While still looking for the "German House" (I read somewhere that there was one, but nobody could tell me where it is and it was also not included in my pass XD), I came across the "Austrian House" and behind it there was also a "Dutch" and "Denmark" House, so I decided to buy a pass for these 3 houses as well (they were not included in the other pass!)
The Austrian House was full of Mozart and stuff.
"Nimm dir Zeit" (~ "Take your time")
Uhm, that's a LIE!!!!!! XDDD That's why I took that photo XDDDDDD It's a LIE!!!! XD
The Denmark House was really cute.
I fell in love with this lamp for some reason.
Well, basically that house was full of Vikings, but there was also some "Moomins" stuff (*_*)v
As you might have guessed already, next was the Dutch House XD
Oh, I found moneyZ!! (*_*)
Finally I arrived at the "Uroko no ie" (うろこの家). This is considered to be the main attraction, so if you're short on time, you should just go there and leave again, I guess XD
First thing I spotted in there was another old German stove XD
And that house was full of (mainly) German porcelain (so much that I thought that THIS might actually be the German House I was looking for, but it was NOT XDDD)
This is really beautiful!
Meissen(!!)
Some really old postcards.
This one was in German (can you read it?).
Some lexicons in German - no wonder I thought that this was the German House, huh? XD
I think one of the reasons why it's the main attraction among the Western-style houses is, because it REALLY looks beautiful and nice from the outside.
There was also a red old-fashioned phonebooth. Most Japanese tourists had their photo taken in it while pretending to use it XD
There was also an exhibition with a lot of Western and Japanese statues. Very interesting :)
If I knew a little bit more about buddism and stuff I'd try to tell you something about all those statues .... I'm working on it .... I'm really interested anyway (^-^')> ......
That was freaky and funny at the same time XD
I loved the colored picture windows at the entrance (*_*)v
Zooooom XD
Camera used:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Okay, I have to stop here. (-_-)
I hope you enjoyed it also there was not much "Japan" in this post, I guess (^-^')>
Stay tuned for part 2 (which hopefully will be up in a few days) in order to answer questions like:
Did I ever find the "German House"? Did I eat Kobe beef? Was it expensive? Was it good? Did I bring some for you guys?
Was there an earthquake? Did I freeze at night or did I get some nice night shots of Kobe port?
Thanks for reading!
バイ☆⌒ヽ(*'、^*)chu ❤
after the last few random entries, let's continue with photos of my winter vacation (*_*)
After Fukuoka I went to Kobe. It was my first time in Kobe and I enjoyed it really a lot. I also didn't know that Nara, Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe are THAT close to each other. It's really convenient and MAYBE I wanna live there one day (but then again, Kyushu (Nagasaki etc.) would be nice as well) [/random blabbering
]
Kobe has SOME similarities with Nagasaki (and some of you might remember that I REALLY fell in love with Nagasaki). It also has a port that was opened for foreign ships during the Meiji era, so even nowadays there are some foreign styled buildings, Catholic churches etc. :)
That day was kind of eventful, so I have to split it into 2 entries again (over 100 photos in one entry would be too much, right? XD
)
Here we go:
Kobe - Day 1 - part 1
(January 2nd, 2010):
Late at night I arrived at my hotel. It was FREAKING cold in the room!!!! (x____X) .... took quite some time to warm up as well.
Not as cold as the house of my coworker, though, where I could see my breath
I got up quite early and walked all the way to my first destination. I liked the signs with flowers and stuff that were everywhere (*_*)v
Well, I was walking through the "Flower Road" anyway XD So I took the chance to take photos of some flowers :)
And as always: gully cover XD
As some of you might know Kobe is quite famous for sweets and bread. I even saw this college on my way.
While walking, I also saw the fancy tourist bus. Looked like some of the tourist buses in other cities :)
Some of the various sightseeing spots of Kobe are shown here XD Cute!
And that's one of the best things I came across!!!!! A Starbucks in an old Western・style building!!!!! WOOT!!! Unfortunately they were still closed when I passed by ;o;
More info here (thanks to pikapikaman
)
Finally I arrived at my destination: Kitano-chou. It's a part of Kobe with a high concentration of Western-style houses, some dating back to the days when Kobe was opened for foreign trade in 1868. Europeans who grew up in similar scenery may find them less fascinating. (<- uhm, yes, agreed!
)
What you see on the photo above is the "Panama Consulate" (旧パナマ領事館). In front of it is a "tourist information center" where you also can buy tickets. I got a pass that allowed me to visit almost all of the main attractions. If you plan to do so anyway, it's cheaper if you get the pass and it's also a nice souvenir (furthermore you can stamp your pass for each destination you went to - yeah Japanese people seem to LOVE stamps ...)
Inlcuded in the pass was also this: dressing up like a European woman, but ... uhm... you know ... I'm European plus it was FREAKING COLD, so I didn't do it XDDDD
It was allowed to take photos inside the houses as well, so of course I did - like crazy! XD
Some things were interesting, but mostly it was just plain Western-style, so not REALLY THAT interesting for Westeners XD
Nevertheless I'll keep posting photos of the inside as well, so you can judge by yourself if you wanna go there and enter if you ever get the chance to do so XD
That's obviously the "English House" XD ...........
Really kind of boring, but the other Japanese tourists loved it! They also could dress up as Sherlock and take photos XDDDD
English breakfast (ugh...), of course that's plastic XD
These were kind of cute ^-^
Tea time! I like the sunlight in this picture :)
Awesome clock is awesome.
And at the exit (of the ENGLISH house) I found a GERMAN (verrrryy old) stove!!! Even with German text on it XDDDD Funny!
That must have been "Ben's House". He was a hunter so there were a lot of stuffed animals.
I loved the plates, though. They were beautiful. This one looks like it could be from Germany.
And here we go. Kind of freaky.
That's scary, but it's a beautiful wolf (*_*)v
This one was free and there was also a toilet XD But I liked the outside view a lot, so I took some photos.
Inside was a small photo exhibition. That's Kobe at night (*___*)v
I was able to take some nice night photos of that place as well, but no firework XD
Random: Momiji hakken! (*___*)v
Probably you've all heard about the really strong Hanshin earthquake in Kobe in 1995 .....
While still looking for the "German House" (I read somewhere that there was one, but nobody could tell me where it is and it was also not included in my pass XD), I came across the "Austrian House" and behind it there was also a "Dutch" and "Denmark" House, so I decided to buy a pass for these 3 houses as well (they were not included in the other pass!)
The Austrian House was full of Mozart and stuff.
"Nimm dir Zeit" (~ "Take your time")
Uhm, that's a LIE!!!!!! XDDD That's why I took that photo XDDDDDD It's a LIE!!!! XD
The Denmark House was really cute.
I fell in love with this lamp for some reason.
Well, basically that house was full of Vikings, but there was also some "Moomins" stuff (*_*)v
As you might have guessed already, next was the Dutch House XD
Oh, I found moneyZ!! (*_*)
Finally I arrived at the "Uroko no ie" (うろこの家). This is considered to be the main attraction, so if you're short on time, you should just go there and leave again, I guess XD
First thing I spotted in there was another old German stove XD
And that house was full of (mainly) German porcelain (so much that I thought that THIS might actually be the German House I was looking for, but it was NOT XDDD)
This is really beautiful!
Meissen(!!)
Some really old postcards.
This one was in German (can you read it?).
Some lexicons in German - no wonder I thought that this was the German House, huh? XD
I think one of the reasons why it's the main attraction among the Western-style houses is, because it REALLY looks beautiful and nice from the outside.
There was also a red old-fashioned phonebooth. Most Japanese tourists had their photo taken in it while pretending to use it XD
There was also an exhibition with a lot of Western and Japanese statues. Very interesting :)
If I knew a little bit more about buddism and stuff I'd try to tell you something about all those statues .... I'm working on it .... I'm really interested anyway (^-^')> ......
That was freaky and funny at the same time XD
I loved the colored picture windows at the entrance (*_*)v
Zooooom XD
Camera used:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Okay, I have to stop here. (-_-)
I hope you enjoyed it also there was not much "Japan" in this post, I guess (^-^')>
Stay tuned for part 2 (which hopefully will be up in a few days) in order to answer questions like:
Did I ever find the "German House"? Did I eat Kobe beef? Was it expensive? Was it good? Did I bring some for you guys?
Was there an earthquake? Did I freeze at night or did I get some nice night shots of Kobe port?
Thanks for reading!
バイ☆⌒ヽ(*'、^*)chu ❤