Kobe and the Epic Adventure!

On my last day of Hiroshima I went to the Peace Memorial park, but I had to go at night since I didnt have enough time and I was leaving to Kobe the following morning. The Atomic Bomb Dome building really tears your heart apart. Presevered in the same state as it was when the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima, only a couple hundred metres away from the centre of the explosion.

I got up early the following morning to get the bus to Kobe, a long 6 hour ride, but well worth it. Kobe is one of the most beaufiful cities I have seen, and one of the most lively too. With mountains quite close to the north, sea to the south, and a bustling city centre this place has everything!

The first day I arrived I decided to just walk around and explore on my own. I was trying to get to the local sake brewery but when I got there the museum had just shut... but I wasnt too late to get some free samples of sake hahahah. Anyway heres the photos of that.

The next day (today) I got up at 7 and made my host (a nice japanese guy named Tetsuya) some breakfast. Even though egg is a staple food in Japan he told me he had never eaten omelette before... Anyway today was epic adventure day :P I wanted to visit the onsen (hot spring) in the mountains called Arima Onsen. On my stupid small city map I picked up at the station it seemed to be north, and that was about all it could tell me. Testsuya told me "do you see that mountain? its on the other side" hahahah. He said no one that he knows has ever walked there, so I thought I would try. Getting to the mountain was easy since I could see it... so I just used my compass (thanks Andy & Bernie) to go north.

I hit the mountain and asked a local how to get to the onsen so he told me how which direction to go and wished me luck haha. Luckily I met a lot of travellers along the way. I would travel with a group for a couple of hours then part ways and I would travel with another group who were heading in the same direction for a while.

So I traversed Mt Maya, and Mt Rokko. Heres me at the top of Mt Rokko.

After 6 hours I finally reached the onsen, and by that time I really needed it! haha. Actually Arima Onsen was an Onsen in the town of Arima, a nice mountain town. So that was a nice suprise, at least I had somewhere I could go to eat! After that I came back to the city (by train this time) and met my next host (Matteo). Hes a cool guy I will be staying with him for 2 nights then heading for Tokyo.