Kobe

This weekend we took a day trip to Kobe. A teacher from Vicky's school found out about the trip and invited us to go. It turned out to be one of the best things we have done since we have been here. We left for Kobe on Saturday morning at around 7 o'clock when the tour bus picked us up, and we got to Kobe about noon. We then had 7 and a half hours to experience Kobe and the main highlight of the trip, Iluminaria. Iluminaria is an incredible display of Christmas lights that rivals anything I've ever seen in any city anywhere. The fact that Japan only celebrates Christmas for fun and not for religious purposes definitely did not affect the effort they put into the light displays. While Iluminaria was the highlight of the day, the rest of Kobe did not disappoint us. The city is absolutely beautiful and literally has everything you could want. It is right on the ocean shore with beautiful buildings throughout the downtown, a magnificent port area, and shopping and restaurants to no end. At the end of the day we took the long bus trip back to Kure and went to bed. We hope this won't be our last trip to Kobe!
One of the pics above is of part of iluminaria, and the other is of the amusement park by the port from the top of the port tower 157 meters in the air.