Japan [Day 9 - Kobe & Osaka]

Kobe, port city

KOBE

A another day, another journey. Today we're going to Kobe in the morning. We took the train from Osaka to Kobe-Sannomiya station which took 30 minutes. Kobe is located not very far from Osaka. When we arrived, we took a walk outside heading to Kobe Port Tower. We saw a few Anpanman statues around this town. There's a museum for Anpanman here in Kobe but we didn't plan to go there. I guessed Anpanman wasn't very popular in Malaysia as we knew a little about it.

Anpanman

Kobe Harborland

Kenapa abam2 paus berenang atas darat?

More Anpanman

Kobe Port Tower

The weather was gloomy today thus our photos mostly had grey background. Sometimes the rain did fall down, but only in slight drizzles. We enjoyed our walked towards the tower, passing through a dock where a couple of cruises were waiting to depart. The tower is a symbol of Kobe. The entrance fee to observation deck is 600 yen (adult). However, we didn't go up to the deck because Emie didn't want to due to tight budget. He said it's okay if we wanted to go up, he would just wait downstairs. Hmmm, in the end we didn't go up to the deck, we just wandered around at the lobby and visited the souvenir shop. I bought a few magnets here. What's the point of traveling together if you didn't to do things together right?

Kobe Port Tower

with the tower

Meriken Park

Next, we walked to Meriken Park nearby. Meriken Park is a water front where Kobe Tower and Kobe Maritim Museum. Museum? Sorry no. Haha.. We did nothing much here except taking some photos. We saw a bunch of teenagers and asked one of the to take our photo. Actually we helped them to take group photo first.

Kobe Port Tower & Kobe Maritime Museum

Ok la dia ambil gambar, walaupun tak center..

Ikuta Shrine

After that, we took a bus from the Meriken Park back to Kobe-Sannomiya station. Motif pemalas kan? Padahal masa datang tadi jalan kaki je. From the station, we walked towards a shrine nearby, Ikuta Shrine. It's just a small shrine. The structure is quite nice with red colour much like Fushimi Inari in Kyoto.

  

Kobe Mosque | Masjid Kobe

Then we continued our walking tour to Kobe Mosque. The walk was uphill, it it started to rain again lightly. Along the way, we saw a few halal restaurants and halal grocery shop. I was sure that we're heading to the correct direction. After a few turns, we saw the mosque. It's was very pretty. The mosque opened in 1935 and had survived in a lot of incidents such as air raids and earthquake. We performed our prayer here, then bought a few instant noodles from the shop nearby before finding a restaurant to have lunch.

Halal shop

Masjid Kobe

We had tandoori chicken lunch at Madras Kitchen Restaurant which is located just a few minute walk from the mosque. I think the price for the tandoori and rice was around 1200 yen if I'm not mistaken. The food was nice. Then we saw the person who sat next to us ordered a briyani and our iman were goyah. Tetiba nampak lagi sedap. Hahaha..

Lunch

OSAKA

Dotonbori Glico Sign

Back in Osaka, we continued our tour. We captured our moments with the famous landmark in Osaka which is the giant Glico sign in Dotonbori. We spent quite a long time here to adjust the photos since the background kept on changing colours. Dotonbori is famous for its food street as there are a wide range of local food could be found here. Most of the shops/restaurants have giant decorations such as giant crab, giant sushi, giant hands and many others.

Giant crab

a happy Lukman

Shinsaibashi

Again, we went to Shinsaibashi shopping street again as the previous night  was a failure. Lukman bought us a Belgian waffle each but the waffle wasn't as good as the one in Kyoto. We really missed Kyoto though. Osaka is too hectic I guessed. We entered a few shops such as Daiso, 100 yen shops and also a toys arcade. Many gashapon machines were located here and also the crane-thingy. We tried a few rounds of the crane machine in order to get a Stitch plush, but in vain. We're so unlucky. Or tak reti? We didn't spent much money here. Just 500 yen for 6 attempts.

Belgian waffle with chocolate

Star Wars Figures

BB-8

1 coin 100 yen

After killing some of our time here, we took the train back to our hotel. It's time for a good rest.

Tomorrow's going to be our last full day in Japan. Why so soon? 

We're leaving in two days time.

*cry*

Japan [Day 8 - Hiroshima & Himeji]

Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome

HIROSHIMA

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Today was a little bit different. We had our separate agenda. Emie went to Kyoto to have a day tour there while Lukman and I were going to Hiroshima. We took a shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima and the journey took around one and a half hour. Then, we took a bus from the station heading towards Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The weather was rainy today. I had my cardigan and an umbrella with me. It was cold and wet. The entrance fee is 50 yen only. We dropped by a souvenir shop at the lobby where I bought a few postcards and magnets.

The museum was quite similar with the one in Nagasaki, with the remnants and histories. This city was where the first atomic bomb was dropped by the USA prior to bombing of Nagasaki. The bomb wiped out 90% of the city and killed 80,000 people. Three days later, Nagasaki was bombed. resulted in 40,000 casualties. We spent about an hour here before proceeding to the monument outside.

The museum

The monument

Atomic Bomb Dome

Atomic Bomb Dome is a common name for the historical Hiroshima Peace Memorial, located not far from the museum. We walked here under the pouring rain. Spent a few minutes here before heading back to the town.

The dome

After getting wet by the rain, we decided to stay indoor. Thus we walked further to some shop lots. We entered Sogo, looking for some food because it's lunch time! I had a few sushi and bought a pack of strawberries. Luckily there are a few tables inside the supermarket. Therefore, we ate our lunch there.

Pokemon Center Hiroshima

Finding a Pokemon Center was unintentional. I accidentally saw Pokemon Center logo at the elevator door inside the Sogo. Since we still had some time left, Lukman agreed to accompany me here. Last time in Yokohama, the Pokemon mascots are Pikachu, Froakie and Turtwig. Well here the mascots are Pikachu and Red Gyarados aka Shining Gyarados. As usual, I bought some stuff here. :)

Pikachu and Red Gyarados 

Cute Pikachu headscarf but quite pricey

After we're done with the Pokemon Center, we walked towards the bus stop. Prior to that, we entered Tokyu Hands which is quite a large departmental store. They sell a lot of stuffs. We did not buy anything yet, just did some window shopping. Then, we went outside to the bus stop nearby to catch a bus to Hiroshima Station. To our surprise, the bus was late. We were worried that we'd miss our shinkansen to Himeji. We did. We missed it by 1 minute. Duh. Ni semua salah bas itu.

We boarded the next train to Himeji, in unreserved seat coach. Luckily there're still some empty seats. So our journey to Himeji took longer than it should due to the train stopped at every stations. Yup, every stations. Thus we arrived at Himeji very late. Very very late. Poor Emie.

Nice view along the way, from the train window

HIMEJI

Himeji Castle

Emie had waited for us at Himeji station more than an hour. Sorry for keeping you waiting for so long. It's the bus fault. So what's interesting in Himeji? Himeji Castle of couse! Asides from Osaka Castle, Himeji Castle is also quite famous among the tourists. Since we arrived late, we didn't get the chance to enter the castle, instead we just roamed around the compound taking photos and visited the souvenir shops. It was still raining.

We left Himeji at dusk and at night, then we dropped by Hard Rock Cafe Osaka again to buy some last minute order from our friends. 

Then, we called it a night.

Tomorrow we're going to Kobe!