asia - day 10 - melt in your mouth

our day in kobe was a lazy, lazy day. sure we walked a lot... but we didn't really do anything. breakfast at the holiday inn was nothing to write home about, just some toast and sweet bread. i was ecstatic that there was orange juice. we headed out and i wore my first pair of converse ever.



awww, this dog was so cute - i wanted to cuddle him. he was sound asleep though. dogs are so adorable when they sleep.



we passed this 4 piece band with flowers growing out of all the instruments. there was music playing though so it was kind of a neat display. slightly creepy but neat.




there is something about this next image that i love. it's funny how certain images just strike you with no logical explanation.



the kitano district in kobe is a neighbourhood of beautiful western style mansions that are open to the public. some are free and some carry an admission charge. one was turned into a starbucks. they were pretty to look at but nothing too interesting - apparently, the boy didn't take a strong interest either!



since there are still a lot of expats living in the area, kobe is filled with western style restaurants. this statue would have been right at home in montreal or paris.



then it was my favourite time of day - lunch time! we decided to get japanese fast food, which was a lovely bento box with tons of little packets of condiments. i tried to convince the boy to get the bento but for some reason he went for the rice bowl. it was tiny but he ate lots of mine anyway. since the fast food joint had no seating, we ate outside. i didn't see a lot of people eating outside in japan and we got a few stares.




after lunch, we walked some more and the boy decided he wanted a baseball jersey. we looked and looked for an ichiro jersey but they were all sold out. he didn't want any others so we moved on.



the next few hours were a blur. i know we walked a lot - all the way to the port because i wanted to check out where we'd be going for our ferry the next day.




when i had sufficiently scoped out our route, we headed back to the city centre and shopped. there were so many pretty accessories that i wanted to buy but i kept thinking, "i can make this" so i held back. of course, i haven't made anything so really i should have just bought it all. oh well. maybe i'll make something when i'm done this blog post.

it was dinner time after shopping. since we were in kobe, we knew we had to eat kobe beef. really, what other options would there be? there are tons of restaurants and we couldn't tell which one would be good so we circled the block a couple of times until we decided on one. it was empty and we were worried but we figured it was still early. soon enough, people started trickling in - mostly tourists - but it made us feel better.



each set of two people got their own chef - and ours was so nice! he kept offering to take photos for us and he even told us to hold the meat. i love japan - the peeps understand the photo craze.



there were a whole bunch of steaks and a whole bunch of grades. i regret not taking a photo of the english menu because i can't remember what we ordered. i do know we ordered one kobe steak and one non-kobe steak that was highly recommended by the restaurant. apparently, this other beef has the same flavour and mouth-feel as kobe beef but without the brand name. i went for that one - it was part of a set menu so we got to share all the other suff that came with it. mine was the thicker, round steak. the boy's was the thinner, more marbled steak.



the chef carefully cut, grilled, and served up little pieces of beef until it was all gone. i have never had such a delicious steak - the meat literally melted in my mouth. it was INCREDIBLE. i actually enjoyed the non-kobe steak more. the kobe beef was too marbled and i have a thing about the texture of fat in my mouth - it makes me gag - but thank goodness i didn't that night.



after we ate all the appetizers, soup, salad, beef, rice, and little side dishes, we were stuffed. the boy ate all the pieces of grilled fat so i think he may have been extra full. even the bean sprouts were grilled in kobe beef fat - it was excellent. we headed back to the hotel, completely satisfied, but not before buying a crispy ice cream sandwich to share. i was so full, i couldn't even hold the camera steady afterwards. this is the best i could do but i think i like it!