Kobe - 27th November 2013

A quick trip to Kobe from Osaka is extremely convenient with a train ride away.
When you talk about Kobe, you will automatically link it to Kobe beef, the legendary melts-in-your-mouth meat!

We reached Osaka just in time for an early lunch. Originally, I have made a reservation at a well-known restaurant Kobe Plasir in the middle of Kobe city. However, I booked it on 27th Nov, missing it by just a day. So we were a little disappointed but managed to find another excellent place for some Kobe beef.. restaurant Moriya!

Us with our kobe beef!

Being curious, I took a small piece and it totally blew my mind away. It just melts in your mouth at the instant it entered and a tasty feel swarmed my tastebuds. Zs requested for medium rare for the beef. In fact, before the beef was cooked, the staff took pics of us holding the Kobe beef that we were going to savor. There are 3 different ways to taste the Kobe beef with. Youcan mix a little of salt, wasabi to the beef before eating it. This is one way to enjoy the taste of the beef!

Im not someone who eats beef but ZS does..so we ordered a Kobe beef set for him and a seafood set for me. The chef is very young but looks skillful as he preps the beef, cooking it in a teppanyaki style.

The seafood was equally tasty.. accompanied with yummy veggies.. I loved the squid especially. And we drank asahi beer too. It was my first time consuming beef and the experience was great!!

After a hearty meal, we walked around Kobe city. Everywhere in fact, you will see many restaurants of Kobe beef. All should taste great even the worst one I think. It depends on the skills in preparation and I do believe Japanese do great in any jobs with their good attitude and passion.

We hopped on to the train to visit the Nunobiki Herb Gardens

Upon reaching the subway station, we walked out and took a Cable car up the field. Its an amazing ride as Kobe is also filled with autumn foliage. The maple leaves are kind of welcoming us aswe were lifted up by the cable car.

As we reached the top, we felt a strong aroma of herbs and flowers. Sometimes lavender, sometimes rose. Very nice place for flower viewing and a lovely stroll.

After buying some souvenirs(all herbsrelated), be it chamomile tea, rose pack to put in wardrobes etc, wetook the cable car down and streamed off to explore Chinatown and the shopping district in Kobe.

The iconic statues at Chinatown of Kobe which features numerous shops selling pork buns, dumplings, and famous chinese delicacies...mainly sold by the Chinese community living in Japan.

Piggy and Panda buns!

Shopping District in Kobe
It was nearing sunset time as we reached this tower and it was just nice for a ferry ride to explore Kobe from the sea. Since it was the last ferry ride, we went ahead for this journey and saw the sunset of Kobe :)

The Kobe Port Tower looks like a shimmering champagne.

The bad thing is the weather that day was super dupercold.as it was nearing winter, the wind was very strong and we used many heat packs that day. Our attire was not suited for winter temp. It was less than 10C. Maybe Kobe is nearer to the sea haha..

All the way back home after an eventful day at Kobe with an awesome view of Osaka skyline from our window view at the hotel!