Apparently, this is a very popular wall of signs for tourists.  I followed the crowd and snapped this picture.

Looks like a certain somewhat famous tower in Tokyo, doesn’t it?

A view of Mt. Fuji from afar.

Here are some pictures of houses with their Christmas lights:

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

Small but getting bigger.  At around 7 am, the crew and I got in the water.  The waves were a reasonable size and the new fins seemed to work well.  Caught lots of waves in the morning.

In the afternoon, the waves got smaller again.  During my afternoon break I took these:

A full day of surfing action.

Da Crew:

A little bit blurry because of the light rain.

Looking forward to the next surf meet!!

We were quite disappointed to be honest.  Perhaps because we live in Japan, we are jaded tourists?  Near this shrine is Urako House.  Urako House is a popular site for Japanese tourists.  Apparently it was originally a rental house for wealthy foreigners.  The entry for this museum is 1,000 so we decided to pass on it.  However, we took this picture at the entrance:

Impressive isn’t it?

It was quite hot so I decided to take a break with this statue of a shirtless man playing a saxophone.

What were they thinking when they put this statue here?

Finally we visited the harbour.  Here is a picture of Port Tower and the Kobe Maritime Museum.  (The trusty cynical guide book stated that the outside of the museum was the most interesting part.  We questioned this but we didn’t have time to see for ourselves).

We also saw this life-sized replica of the Santa Maria, one of Columbus’ ships.

Why this replica is in Kobe beats me.

Finally, this is the famous? cafe* Fish!

I wonder why it is called cafe* Fish!?  and why is there an asterisk in the name?  It was closed because of a private function so we couldn’t find out why. 

Lots of places to see in Kobe – to see everything, you’ll need at least 2 full days.  Maybe we’ll have a chance to go again sometime.

How exactly does eating at Sukiya save time and money?  Wouldn’t you save money by cooking at home or eating at a cheaper fastfood restuarant?  Anyways, back to the topic at hand…waterfalls…

There are 4 waterfalls near Shin-Kobe station called Nunobiki Falls – Odaki, Medaki, Meotodaki and Tsuzumigataki. The first picture is Odaki.  It is 43 metres high and the most famous of the four.

Here’s another shot.  I’m not sure what the name of this waterfall is.  It looks quite similar doesn’t it?

These certainly are the nicest waterfalls that I have ever seen within a 10-minute-walk of a major train station – a shinkansen station at that.

Here’s the view from the top of the mountain:

Not a bad view – considering that it is in the middle of summer and most Japanese cities are covered with smog!

Here are a few pictures from the garden:

It was a scorching hot summer day.  I’m sure that the garden is much nicer in the spring.  If I have the chance, I’d like to visit again in the spring.

We stayed at a great hotel near Kobe station with a wonderful view of the city and the harbour.

Here’s a photo taken from our hotel:

Here are a few pictures of the grounds:

Here is a view of the courtyard…

Originally, there were 72 statues in the courtyard.  Each statue represents one of the 72 followers of Confucius.

A 73rd follower has appeared?

There is also a quite nice exhibit of old, expensive pottery.  Like most museums, you can’t take photos – but the pottery was impressive (but what do I really know about antique Chinese pottery?)  For your viewing pleasure, I borrowed a couple of photos from a pdf I downloaded for the shrine’s website (Japanese only).

Isn’t it lovely? (Note the peony-lotus-arabesque design)

Yet another exquisite piece… (the ever-popular dragon and phoenix design)

My favourite plate – the exotic yet somewhat familiar 9 peaches design.