We had some rolling seas last night – which was a change from the calm seas we’ve become used to. We had a morning at sea since we didn’t arrive into Kobe until around 2:30 p.m.
So, I played bridge (had a short lesson and then played for an hour or so with Arlene, Duane, and Charlie. It was fun.
Doug and I had lunch up in the Lido and watched as we passed near the city of Osaka, which is close to Kobe – especially by train. Then I worked on the computer for about an hour while he was at an activity. We both met up on Deck 9 for the sail in to Kobe.
We can’t get over how welcoming Japan has been.
A fireboat in the harbor welcomed the Amsterdam to Kobe. It made designs with their water spray.
At the terminal on the balcony was a University band playing music to welcome us. It was a lovely, sunny day with temps in the upper 60s, so it was fun being out on deck.
As soon as we were allowed off the ship, we went with Ken (who needed some help) in the courtesy shuttle into the city area (about an 8 minute ride.) It is so clean here. We were dropped at the corner where Chinatown and the covered shopping arcade, called Motomachi, are located. Since we got there about 3:30 and the shops all close at 5 p.m., we didn’t have a lot of time. We made a few purchases in both shopping areas. However, this Chinatown was mainly just restaurants and some clothing stores with very few gift shops or souvenir places.
Ken wanted to take the train instead of the shuttle bus back to the port. He is really interested in the trains in different ports. Well, we met these nice two Japanese ladies who stopped to talk to us so they could practice their English. They were very nice. When Ken asked about the train station, they walked us back to the entrance to the arcade and then decided they would take Ken on the train themselves to the place he had to make the transfer. They knew we wanted to stay on and continue shopping. So, here these two strangers go out of their way (they had planned to go home by bus) to actually accompany Ken to the transfer station and make sure he got on the correct train there. It made us rethink how we treat strangers who visit our country. This kindness from others just keeps happening again and again.
After we got back to the ship, we went up to the Lido for a special Japanese style dinner called Teppanyaki. It was really good and there was a great variety of different kinds of dishes – everything from sushi, to Tempura, to Dim Sum style dining with about 5 or 6 different kinds of dumplings. They also had other tables of food, but there was a limit to how much we could eat!
Doug went to see the big screen movie – Sherlock Holmes (he only stayed for half of it) while I went to see Young Victoria about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in their early years. It was quite good.
We have an early and long day tomorrow in Kyoto, so I need to end now and get some shut eye.
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