Tokyo to Kobe to Awaji

 April 13, 2025 Sunday 
Travel Day from Tokyo to Kobe

It was now Sunday and our big train travel day going from Tokyo to Kobe where we would be meeting our Tohoku tour group.

We went down to our Toyoko Inn breakfast area and got our usual musubi (rice balls) miso soup and coffee. We were all sharing tables with other people and the woman next to us noticed Art and I were speaking in English. 

I didn't get her permission to post her photo so I have to blank her out. She was very pretty and said her name was Mao. She'd learned English in Toronto and wanted to practice with us. We spent a very happy half hour or more talking about all our experiences before she had to leave to catch her train.

Before leaving the breakfast area, we gave small packages of macadamia nut candies to the three ladies who served the breakfasts every morning. We really appreciated their cheerful greetings each day. They were so happy to get the small acknowledgement of their work that it made us happy too.

8:30 AM  We then tidied our room and headed for the metro to go to Tokyo station where we bought tickets for the Shinkansen (bullet train) to take us to Shin-Osaka and then to Kobe. It took longer because we got the train from Shin-Osaka to Kobe that made a lot of stops.

2:00 PM  We saw that our suitcases sent with Yamato Transport from Narita Airport had arrived safely at the hotel where we met my cousin Arnold and his partner, Nancy.

We had dinner at the hotel buffet later that evening.

Someone came up to me at dinner and said, "Hello Kay." 😃 I was definitely surprised. It was Phyllis! We'd been on another tour together in 2018! 

Unlike the brick wall view we had at our Toyoko Inn room in Tokyo, this hotel had a night view of the train station where we'd arrived and Kobe's city lights.

April 14, 2025 Monday

Since I've had very bad vertigo a couple of times, I asked the Tohoku Tour group for a seat closer to the front of the bus. 

We were introduced to our tour guide, "Erika", bus driver "Jackie" and translator "Matt".

Erika told us that a lot of Japanese people are wearing masks because of allergies to cedar pollen that they call yellow sand.

Our first stop was the Awaji Flower Garden to see beautiful canola flowers. Here we are with Arnold and Nancy.

We tried their Wagyu hamburgers and gurudog for lunch and they were very good. I've no idea what gurudog meant, but it was like a regular hot dog. The tour company gave us each 2,000 yen ($14.00) for lunch to spend as we like. 

We passed over a bridge that had the Awaji Vortex which is apparently quite famous.

I imagine boats would avoid going close to it.

Wikipedia:

Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance: the Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai (puppeteers), tayu (chanters), and shamisen musicians. Occasionally other instruments such as taiko drums will be used. The combination of chanting and shamisen playing is called jōruri and the Japanese word for puppet (or dolls, generally) is ningyō. It is used in many plays.

Our next stop was the Joruri Puppet Theatre to see the famous Bunraku puppets.

You can see that the puppets were very large. Puppeteers in black moved them along the stage.

And here I am with "Jackie" and "Erika," our friendly, fun driver and tour guide.

This was the only downer to a wonderful day. "Matt" had taken us to the Sakura restaurant near our hotel to experience Kobe beef. We were each given 3,000 yen ($20.00) for dinner. "Matt" had carefully explained to the waitress what our meals would be for the four of us.

Arnold and Nancy's meals arrived but ours didn't. When I finally went up to ask what happened, she said she thought we were all sharing the two meals so she had Art and me order again. However, they were now out of their premium Kobe Chateaubriand beef. Instead, we could only choose the sirloin version we didn't want. It was mediocre to say the least since it cost 22,880 yen for both of us which equals about $158.00! 😮

OK... so that was the only downer for the trip. Unfortunately, it was the first day.