2013 - OCEANIA - KOBE, & OSAKA CASTLE

Mon 23 May 2005

Now in Kobe, famous for it's beef but at 100 dollars for a steak, I pass.

The band is out to greet us as we are the first cruise ship of the season..

and maybe Miss Kobe 2013...

Tour guides in Japan were very appreciative of our visiting Japan. They need the money of course, but said we are brave for coming. We are miles away from the Tsunami damage & Nuclear meltdown so I do not consider myself brave.

I was in Vietnam when the 2011 Tsunami hit Japan & luckily it did not affect us there.

Driving through Kobe...

I am heading to Osaka castle but call into a temple on the way. Much simpler in design than the temples we have been seeing..

Some great art pieces...

& then to Osaka castle. Nice curved walls..

A lone player on the ramparts....Japanese version of the bagpipes..

The guide was telling a story about this wall but I was not paying attention.

I got to the top of the castle and this is the view down...

Notice the crane coming into land on the tree??

& perched in the tree...

Osaka castle is famous in the series & book - Shogun. Great book. I have read it several times. Richard Chamberlain was in the series. Baki, my friend in Hawaii is a friend of him.

Samuarai feature a lot...

Back to Kobe.. I bump into Jenny & Don in the shopping mall by the ship & we see this amazing see-through wedding dress in a shop window.

Jenny buys some great looking leather shoes for a really good price - like 35 dollars. Later in Japan I hear that these shoes are called 'Chemical shoes'. Not real leather. Nice though.

Our ship...