Hiking Mt. Rokko!

So as I've mentioned before, Kobe is very much like Seattle as it's next to the water as well as next to a mountain range. So of course, I had to go hiking! We met on campus before setting out. As usual, photo props go to Ashley and whoever stole her camera to take photos :)

We took a 30 minute walk to hike up to the base of the trail (our school is about halfway up the mountain already, so we walked to the trailhead). There is a cable car that will take you to the top, which you later took down, but now I'm getting ahead of myself.

There are wild boars on the mountain! Which we didn't get to see lol

The gang!

This is what I probably looked like the entire time, since we didn't have a good trailmap, I was constantly worried I'd lead everyone down the wrong path, so I was always scouting ahead lol

Trail pictures! Some of them look unreal!

2/3 up we broke for lunch/snack time

And we got to the top! It was a bit cloudy, but the view was better in person :)

Us troublemakers

Just Chilling

At this point, we were planning to start heading back, but then we decided to keep going and explore some of the activities that were on top of the mountain (which resulted in about an hour more of walking)

There was a music box museum, which we didn't go into since it cost money lol

It did have a nice garden though :) It really reminded me of Arriety

We got to the second observation point which was much more impressive, it had a tower! :D It was like a small European town, so it felt like we weren't in Japan anymore, besides the fact that most people there were Japanese lol

PHOTO OF THE DAY

And celebratory icecream

And then we took a bus and the cable car down since everyone was exhausted lol

It was a most exciting day and a great kick-off right before Golden Week, but more about that later. Definitely going to go hiking again :D

--Lisa

Adventure & Food Days with Ashley!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've done a blog post! Since then I've gone on quite a few adventures, and many with Ashley (A fellow student of UW Seattle who is also majoring in Business, Accounting, and International business with me :D ). She is an amazing travel buddy and I'm glad that I get to share so many experiences with her :)

Here are but a few moments in which we have wreaked havoc in Kobe (posted in chronological order) lol

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Our first day dedicated to just shopping, we found this super delicious Don-place. There are many types of "Don" like "Oyako Don" (Chicken and egg on top of rice) or "Katsu-don" (Deep fried meat on top of rice), basically, a bowl of rice with something on top, with some yummy sauce. Here's Ashley and I with are yummy food!

At this particular place, there was a vending machine where you pay for your meal beforehand. You pay, click what you want, and get a ticket which you hand to the waiter once you sit down. :)

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Ashey took me to a Kurazushi! It's conveyor-belt sushi place where everything is only 100 yen! So amazing! :D

You make your own tea! :D

And there was a touch screen so you could order food!

And the order comes on another conveyor belt when it's done!

Make sure to press the button once you've taken it!

Dessert was super good too!

I ate it all!

Just kidding, this was with our powers combined :)

Afterwards, we did some shopping for household supplies, and I found a couch lol That was such a good store, Ashley and I had so much fun in it! lol

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Mos Burger!

We went to a Mos Burger, which is a popular fast food burger chain in Japan. It was Ashley's first time so we took pictures! :D

We got the original Mos Burgers, and I was definitely missing Chipotle, so we got this taco salad that was on naan, so good :)

Look how cute she is!! :D

And they had buckets so you could put your bags and things in them while you ate. Only Japan lol

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Overall, some very good times, and many more to come :)

--Lisa