Aaaaahhhh! I can breathe!

First of all, I wanted to let you all know that I wasn't slackin' about blogging. I didn't want to post without pictures. And it seems, for the past 3 days, that I haven't been able to post a picture. I looked at the help group website and apparently many other folks are having the same problem. SO, sorry this doesn't have pics. As soon as it starts working, I will stick them in here!

Well.....I am happy to report that I have had the most relaxing weekend I've had in months! I had absolutely NOTHING that I had to do. It was great to actually get caught up on laundry and watching some movies that I've been able to see since I started taking my phonics class. Although, since the weather is getting colder it is taking FOREVER for the clothes to dry. HOPEFULLY they will dry before I leave for India!

Sunday, December 3rd, I ended up meeting up with a few friends in Kobe. It was my friend Rich's birthday the day before. He apparently loves Brazilian restaurants, so we went to one that was in Kobe. Although it's about a 2 hour train ride, it was WELL worth it. After meeting Mercedes, Rich and Lara at Umeda station, we headed to Kobe. Once we arrived, we headed to the nearest Starbucks because the cold weather was gettin' to us. We sat and chatted for a while, then browsed a few stores before heading to the Port of Kobe. Which is most famous for it's beef, which when being raised, is massaged and fed hops (BEER!). It is well-known for being marbled with fat and sometimes served raw! YUCK!

Kobe is the 6th largest city in Japan and has the 6th largest port in the country. On January 17, 1995 at 5:46am, Kobe was hit with a devistating earthquake of a 7.2 magnitude and 6,433 people lost their lives. Over 200,000 people lost their homes and businesses. Buildings, roads, railroads and bridges were demolished.

The city was almost completely ruined. The temperatures were bitter cold and people had to take refuge in nearby buildings that were still standing. Many struggled just to stay warm. Businesses such as Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Honda and Nissan had plants in Kobe that had to hault production of thousands of cars due to the disaster. Many people from surrounding kens had to pitch in to help the people of Kobe. Wakayama did it's part by sending several hundred year old rice cookers from Koyasan to the site so that food could be made to feed the locals. This is an amazing amount of devistation considering the quake only lasted for 20 seconds!

It has now been almost 12 years since the quake and I am happy to say that Kobe has rebuilt and is a beautiful city once again.

When we arrived at the port, which is famous for Port Tower (a big orange space-like structure), the boardwalk was full of people. Everywhere you looked, you could see that Christmas is near! Christmas lights galore!

Once we found the restaurant, we were all so excited to start eating. However, before we went in, Rich and I saw the perfect photo op! Next to the entrance was a wooden barrel with skewers of fake meat sticking out of the top....so we just had to be a bit silly and steal a shot!

The restaurant was buffet style, something I haven't had since before I left for Japan. So the thought of all I can eat was overwhelming, especially when I saw all of the food. There was a salad bar with an amazing variety of veggies (hearts of palm, okra, beets, chickpeas, spinach, broccoli, 3 different kinds of lettuce and many more veggies), sides out the wazoo! Fries, pasta, rice, soups, veggies and other Japanese things I had no idea what they were! THEN, the best part. Several men were walking around with those skewers. Their signal was a little wooden cylinder that had been painted half red and half green. The green meant "bring on the meat", and the red meant..."give us a minute to breathe". Next, the guys would come over to your plate, put the skewer on your plate and cut away! There were a few who made the evening fun with a few jokes about the food not being good, but oh it was! And another one liked to sneak up behind you and make silly noises to get a scream out of you (and those of you who know me....YES, I screeched). The food was FABULOUS!! So I'd say my first experience in a Brazilian restaurant was a hit! Although....my belly hurt for hours afterwards! You could also tell that this restaurant was very popular among the foreigner population in Japan, most of the customers were foreigners (meaning Americans, Russians, Brits, etc). The BEST surprise of the evening......Lara, Mercedes and Rich paid for my dinner. I was completely caught off guard. They said it was because I bought the turkey for Thanksgiving. But I truly wasn't expecting anything in return for that. I just wanted some good friends to spend a holiday, that is close to my heart, with me! Thanks guys!

After dinner we tried to walk off dinner a bit by scopin' out the area around the port. We took some Japanese style pictures in a booth and then headed back to the train station. On the way to meet them, I think a little girl stole my gloves and scarf....so I wanted to hit up a few stores on the way to the station to get some new ones....but for 3000yen for a scarf and 1500yen for gloves....I chose to freeze and then hit up my local 100yen store another day!

What a great end to a relaxing weekend....now to see if my clothes are dry yet!!

This reminded me of the Nautica Queen....only BETTER!!