We decided to have a relaxed outing in Kobe one weekend.
Then, we came across yosakoi festival in the city!
Yosakoi is a mixture of traditional Japanese dance and modern dance. Their costumes are also traditional Japanese with a taste of modernity in it. Yosakoi is very popular and there are many schools and groups that perform yosakoi.
There are many yosakoi festivals, events, and competitions throughout Japan.
After enjoying some yosakoi performances, we headed to China Town. Yuki thought maybe you guys have China Town in Virginia, too?
To many people in the world, we, Asians, might seem the same, but each country in Asia actually has its own unique culture. We are not sure how, but just from people's appearance (or maybe the atmosphere), we, Asians, can tell which country they are from as well.
Can you see Pekin Duck!? We have never tried it yet..
It is in Japan, but stepping inside this neighborhood, you can experience totally different atmosphere!
Everything in China Town is so colorful and pretty! We believe those are lucky charms.
After going to China Town, we headed up north. This photo is of along the railway. Can you see someone wrote "No Curry, No Life" on the wall?
We found a little shrine in the corner of a neighborhood.
There was another shrine in the middle of big buildings...
It's just very interesting to see all those shrines in the middle of cities in Japan, especially considering how Japanese people are not religious at all. Shinto religion is deeply rooted in and is a part of Japanese culture and everyday life!
This is where we wanted to go! Soraku Garden. We think this could be the only (famous) Japanese garden in Kobe!? This was a part of residence of the former mayor of Kobe.
We wanted to check out the lantern festival they had. Especially during summer, there are so many lantern festivals throughout Japan!
It was actually a very pretty Japanese garden! It got dark soon after we got there, so we couldn't fully enjoy the garden. We definitely want to go back there again during the day!
They made lanterns with traditional Japanese umbrellas.
We then went to downtown Kobe to have dinner. We usually don't go out at night, so whenever we come out to the city at night, it kind of takes us by surprise how bright it is with all the lights from stores and neon signs and how many people are out!
In Japan, people ride bicycles a lot. They sometimes park their bicycles on the side of the street, because there are not enough bicycle parking lots (or maybe because it's just more convenient that way), and it is a big problem for some cities.
We did not eat Kobe beef for dinner, but we wanted to share with you that Kobe is famous for this special beef called Kobe beef. Have you heard of it...?
The basketball player, Kobe Bryant, was named after this Kobe beef! His parents came to Japan and tried Kobe beef, and they loved it so much that they named their son after it!
Also, when President Obama visited Japan in 2009, he made a request that he wanted to try Kobe beef (and tuna)!
We have tried Kobe beef before, and we did not find anything special about it, haha...
We did not spend much time in Kobe this summer, so we were glad we got to explore a bit around Kobe that weekend with Tag!
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