Trip to Kobe

Good morning! In Japanese, the word for good morning is Ohayo, which sounds like Ohio, which for obvious reasons, is the Japanese phrase that I use most often. Here is a view from the campus of Mukogawa Women's University. After practicing in the morning, I enjoyed lunch at one of the dining halls with two piano students. Then, I was greeted by two other students, Luna and Misaki, who took me by train to the city of Kobe.

 The train ride was about thirty minutes, and since my Japanese friends did not speak English and I did not speak Japanese, we used a translator app on our iPhones. Unfortunately, they had trouble understanding what I was saying. This was because the technologically-impaired American in the group had his iPhone set for translating to Vietnamese, rather than Japanese. Once my friends pointed this out to me, we were able to communicate much more effectively.

Much of the port city of Kobe is built into the side of the Rokko mountain range. We spent most of our time touring the historic district of Kitano, which features elaborate mansions from imperialist nations across the world, dating from the late nineteenth century. This first building was an Italian chapel:

 This next photo shows the street that runs at the base of the mountain.

 The next photo is the Uroko House, which had a small museum inside with Russian paintings.

 A view from inside:

 Looking out the window at the modern city:

 Here's what Santa drives when his unreliable American-made sleigh breaks: (you won't find that in the guidebook!)

 These African statues were the inspiration for Picasso's cubist method of depicting humans:

 I looked the same way when I learned Mukogawa was an all-girls school:

 A bar inside the English house:

 Elaborate dining room in the English house:

 Dining room at the former Chinese consulate:

 One of the many stuffed animal trophies inside the home of an English hunter, dating from 1902. This is the largest known stuffed polar bear:

 This home was decorated like Sherlock Holmes, and rivaled the Sherlock Holmes museum I saw in London:

 Next we went to the commercial district of Kobe, where we stopped at Starbucks. There was also a KFC and one of these:

 Next, my Japanese friends told me that they wanted to do a "photo booth," which I assumed meant that they wanted to take their picture with me. The translation from Japanese to English is not always precise. To my surprise, this particular translation was 100% correct, as I found myself surrounded by over 30 pre-teen girls at "Oh My Girl" photo booth, where you too can "Make new beauty happen." I will not post the photos on here for risk of being denied at US customs when I return to America. If you'd like to see the photos, you will need to make an appointment with me.

 For dinner,  we went to a Hawaiian restaurant, where I had the Hulu Hulu chicken and a Hawaiian pancake for dessert:

-Carson