I slept very well at Ayaka’s! Her neighborhood is calm and her futon super comfy. On the way to catch the train to Kobe, we grabbed some conbini breakfast. A lot of people everywhere all the time. We missed our switchover so we did have to backtrack a bit, whoops. In Kobe, I saw my first homeless person as we were going through some back alleys. It’s been really surprising to not see them in the big cities at all or beggars.

We stopped by Chinatown first and grabbed a snack. Ayaka got Peking duck and I had a dumpling. Absolutely mouthwatering. It had the white, fluffy bread that Chloe and I dream of from back when our Chinese lab group ordered food for us. We then headed towards the harbor! It smelled like the ocean, ah, I miss a salty breeze. It’s been a little over a year since my last ocean visit in Maine. We walked around Meriken Park and saw Kobe Tower and a ferris wheel. Lots of hotels right on the water. There was music playing and some kind of festival tents and people practicing their dance performances. I also saw the Japanese Coast Guard boats, ha.

Afterward we walked to the next train station and stopped in a cute little store. Once I have a bit of a nest egg built here, shopping here I come! We got off to take a gondola up to the Kobe Herb Garden Park. The round trip ticket was a little pricey but once we saw how steep the mountain was, we decided it was worth it. I was worried I’d get motion sick with the swinging up the gondola (they only sat 6), but once it was past the initial swing out, the rocking calmed. Fantastic views of the city! And we passed over the Nubiki Falls and the damn. We got off at the middle station, dodging the couple with the baby carriage that got in after us. The gondolas never stopped moving so you had to swing yourself in and out quickly. We began our descent to the falls using a road. I took a photo of the initial map and with the help of GPS and google maps, we managed to avoid the wrong path. There was some crazy, unmarked, wilderness trail that we had a short heart attack about, but it turned out the right path was further down the road, thanks to Ayaka’s questioning.

We headed down some steep paths and uneven stairs before finally making it to the waterfall. So beautiful! I really wanted to go swimming in the pool. We decided not to take the road back up as it was really steep and basically the same distance as the hike through the woods. So wasn’t wearing the right shoes for all this walking and standing. We passed some cool sights, a vine covered bridge, a waterfall caused from water overflow from the dam, the dam itself, and the lake of drinking water. Then came the worst part, a bunch of steep switchbacks and stairs back to the top where the middle gondola station was. Somehow we survived and headed to the top station.

At the top station was a European styled building and some food stalls for the Autumn Fest featuring German polka and food – onion soup, sausage, beer and pretzels. Ayaka and I both got a sausage in a bun and enjoyed part two of our lunch. Missing Germany, ahh. I was quite hungry after all that exercise. We walked through the rose garden. It was a little too early for the blooms, but enjoyable. We had tea by the flowers. It was a rosehip, hibiscus tea that changed from a gold to red-orange color as it steeped.  We also walked through the shops, smelled many good herbal fragrances.

We then began our descent through the gardens. Supposedly this is the largest herb garden in Japan with over 75,000 herbs. It was a little off season sadly, too early for the cosmos. They had some Halloween décor up. I feel like there’s a lot more Halloween things around here than in Europe. We finally made it back to the middle station after walking down some steep paths again. My legs were so done. We headed back towards the main station before looking for dinner. Not more walking, but a train. I couldn’t do more. We ended up at an “Italian” family restaurant chain called Saizeriya. They had pasta and pizza, and that was it for the Italian part, haha. Hamburgers were also served. In Japan, they come with just the patty and some fries. Ayaka told me it’s usually eaten with a side of rice! I got doria which was delicious. A baked bowl of rice, sauce, cheese, and some veggies. Would definitely go again!

After we got back to Osaka, we went to a mall where we could go grocery shopping. Ayaka also showed me an import store there; benefits of living in a big city. Good prices and loads of food from around the world that I like. I had mentioned to Ayaka that I was searching for yogurt without fruit chunks and she showed me the brand that she buys. Plain, strawberry and blueberry – all chunk free! We got some breakfast for tomorrow, a kind of cheesecake bread and brown sugar bread. Then we stopped by the takoyaki shop near her apartment and I got to try that for ‘dessert.’ So yummy (even though it was super hot, burnt my tongue). The seller knew Ayaka and asked him about me. Also got asked earlier in her neighborhood if I was a missionary, ha. Takoyaki has octopus inside of a dough ball. After figuring out tomorrow’s plans, I went to bed a full, happy girl.