Today has been one day of that miserable stuff they call sleet. It's, as one friend aptly put it, the worst of both worlds. It's cold, wet, not as pretty, and makes everything just a little more miserable. I swear, it's colder here than it was in Tokyo or Sapporo even, though that may have to do with the fact that houses and buildings up there are properly insulated and you're generally walking around a lot if you're outside. Here, I sit in the not-so-well insulated house and freeze, hiding under my kotatsu and layered with sweatshirts and hoods and stuff cause I'm too cheap/lazy/wary about kerosene and it's general stink/unhealthiness. Small wonder I guess that I feel colder here. The heater was always on when we were on vacation.
Ah vacation, how I miss you.
It did snow for a little bit though, during classes. It was pretty to watch the fatty snowflakes fall to the ground and stick (though I did get feelings of dread that this meant it was colder). But later it just kinda petered out to sleet. The weather today even had pictures of sad looking snowmen; I guess this is for the snow that doesn't stick cause the snowman has his sad face on.
It was a lot of fun though. I got to meet some new people, try some new foods, walk a lot of places, get lost a lot of places, and check a couple things off my "to do" list. A lot happened, and I hardly know where to start. I suppose I'll have to get my pictures uploaded so I can throw up a picture with each entry or something eventually. But yeah, seriously, where do I start.
Day 0: Kobe
Kobe, really, was mostly just a place where I could kill time before our flight the next morning. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8 am. Eight. AM. Early. It takes 30 minutes by shinkansen (roughly) to get from Okayama to Kobe. Therefore, it takes me an hour and a half to get to Kobe from Takahashi. Assuming the least amount of time to go through security and get tickets and stuff, that would mean that I would need to leave Takahashi at 6:00, which would get me there with 30 minutes to spare. This isn't even accounting for the fact that there were four of us who were traveling together and we had to check in together (since one person bought the tickets).
So yeah, we all decided that it would be better to stay the night in Kobe and just wake up early in Kobe and go from there. The other three (two British girls and a kiwi dude) had English camp beforehand, so I decided to head out to Kobe a little bit earlier than everyone else.
I don't think I could list the reasons why I love Kobe. It's a beautiful city, not so big as to be overwhelming, but still with plenty to do and a lovely kind of personality. And the shopping. Oh man, the shopping.
The hostel we stayed at was super chill, close to the train station (both Sannomiya and shin-Kobe, kind of) and I got to walk around a part of the city I've never been to before. It was really interesting, and it killed me that it was on the first day we were there. I wandered down around Tor Street, bought some Crispy M&Ms and bread, and then wandered around Chinatown and bought more food there.
Basically, I ate my way through Kobe. It was wonderful. Chimaki (like zong zi but filled with mushrooms and meat, sadly), nikuman (like char siu bao), xiao lum bao (soup dumplings of delicious) and tasty bread that I can't remember. It was also great, because I didn't have to feel bad about eating meat since my vegetarian friend (bless her) wasn't there yet.
I mean, I don't mind when other people are vegetarians, it's their choice or whatever, but it just gets kinda tiring when my food options (without incurring guilt anyways, since she sometimes offers just to get fries at places like mcDonald's, bless her heart) get limited to pasta and pizza. Swear to god, I've had so much pasta since coming to Japan. Hell, I probably eat more pasta here than I did back at home.
Either way, I digress. I did learn something though, from my visit to Kobe. Or well, some things I guess.
1. They sell pepsi in the vending machine near the hostel we stayed at in Kobe. Apparently, it is hard to find regular Pepsi in Okayama/Chugoku region.
2. It is a bad bad bad idea to go to places where you will want to buy things on the first day of your trip before you've even left for the airport.
3. Kobe has loose leaf puh-er tea. It's ~45,000 yen away by train, 35k by bus. WIN. Kind of expensive to pay for tea, but YES PLEASE.
4. Apparently, being in the city for a couple hours longer than your friends makes you an expert on finding the hostel from the train station that you did not come from.
5. "Will get there around 7 in time for dinner so wait for us" means that by the time we walk back to the hostel and check in and dump your stuff, it will be nearly 9 (or after) and people will be tired and won't want to travel far. If the restaurant you want to go to (ahHEM, Old Spaghetti Factory) is further away than a 5-10 minute walk, go on your own.
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