April 2nd, 2006

Well, I still dont have to do anything, but Chris's vacation is almost over. So lets talk about what we did. You should look at the pictures first. The pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44921715@N00/

Last week, we left for Kobe, Japan on Monday. We had a pleasant train ride (Izumo to Okayama to Kobe) and got to Kobe around 2:30. We took a taxi to our hotel where they told us we couldnt check in until 4:00 so we left our baggage with them and left to find some lunch. Where did we go? Well, we went to McDonalds because we were lost and confused and didnt have any sort of a map. It was all we could find.

After McDonalds, we came back and Chris took a nap for a few hours. I hooked my computer to the internet and was trying to find some online maps. I was getting a little depressed because I realized that I was in a smoking room and it smelled of stale cigarettes. I was even more depressed when i realized that they are really no maps of Kobe and its not really a city built for tourism (i.e. no super convieniant trains). So that was sad. But, when Chris got up, we left and wandered around. We went through the scary tunnel searchign for a subway or station in hopes of finding a map of some kind. I was still pretty bummed though. I felt I had ruined our vacation by picking a stupid hotel.

Finally, after about 20 minutes of wandering, we found Sannomiya! Thats the big commercial area in Kobe. It was full of lights and people and smells and sound. It was amazing. We found a huge bus/train stations and they had some good english tourist maps. So we were saved! We wandered around Sannomiya for about an hour before we settled down in a italian restaurant and had some pizzas. They were tasty. Then we wandered around a little more. It was just nice to be out. We got home and watched the movie Lost in Translation. Thats a funny movie. I understand so much of the weirdness now. Its all bizarrely true.

The next day (Tues), we went to Oji Zoo. It took us way too long to get there. We walked for about two hours before we finally hopped on a bus which took us right to the zoo. It was really dark though and looked like rain. Chris and I wandered around for about 2 hours in the zoo before the skies opened up on us. We took refuge in the Koala Enclosure when the rain got too bad for even umbrellas. It was really cold in that enclosure. After the zoo and rain, we took a cab back to the hotel and then wandered around to see what we could do. We wanted to go bowling, but even though there were three seperate floors for bowling, there was a 3 hour wait. We decided to do something else. Unfortunately, when we left the bowling alley, the rain started again. Poo. This time it was really windy though. Chris's umbrella got utterly demolished from the wind. I was able to close mine before it got flipped inside out though. Stupid wind. Japan is a really windy place. So we went home. When the rain stopped for good, we went out and found a Pizza Hut! Oh heavenly Pizza Hut. It was delicious. We had the meat lovers pizza with cheese in teh crust. Absolutely heavenly!

The next day (Wed), we had a nice lunch at an american style restaurant and then went sight-seeing at the Hayashi Bridge (Pearl Bridge in English I think). I loved the bridge, it was awesome. After that, we took a train to this weird shopping area. It was basically a covered street that had been turned into a mall, but the street went for about ten blocks. It was pretty neat. No cars are allowed through so its just foot traffic and people shopping. Most cities have areas like this in Japan. Izumo even has one, though we havent been there yet. We were actually looking for Chinatown but we decided to wander through that area too. Finally we got to Nanking Machi and we wandered around there for awhile. I really liked Chinatown. Its a lot like normal japan, but there were so many delicious smells. We had a very good dinner in a small restuarant there too. It was real chinese food, supposedly. It ws funny because we were just looking at the food in the window when the waitress came outside and ushered us in through the door. Heh, so we just ate there. It was really good though! Then we came home and just vegged in the hotel watching a REALLY boring movie and stuff.

We had to be out of the room by 10:00 the next day (Thurs), so we left the bags at the front desk and went and got breakfast. It was REAL breakfast too! There were bacon, eggs, and real pancakes. Delicious! After that, we picked up some snacks for the train and we headed home. It was snowing in the mountains too! How depressing! Im ready for spring! We got home around two and took some much needed naps.

On friday we took the bicycles out and just peddaled around Izumo. It was very nice. We ended up getting a digital video camera. I really like the camera. Our trip to Kobe inspired us to get a video camera because we would have rather had taken videos instead of still pictures.

On Saturday we biked around Izumo again (this time to different areas). We took some pictures of a temple and a shrine. I didnt upload them because I used up my alotment for the month at flickr. I will post them some other time. We also rented some movies but we didnt really do much.

Today, was Chris's birthday. I got up early to call home and then he called home. AFter that we played some video games here and then at 6:00 we headed out for a dinner with Jason, Rusty, and Satoko. The dinner was really nice. After dinner we went bowling with them. Bowling was a lot of fun but I am BY FAR the worst bowler of the bunch. Oh well, Ive never been an athlete. Now its time to go to bed.

Vacation week was nice. Im glad I have a few more days to be a vegetable before I start school. Hope you have a happy spring as well!