Kobe Chinatown and more

Nearby Kobe has the only other Chinatown in Japan I believe.  The one in Yokohama is very impressive so I didn't expect much from the one in Kobe.  Which is best really since the former can get pretty crazy with people.  Kobe is also a great place for old western style architecture since it was one of the cities open to foreign trade after the policy of seclusion was removed-

A VERY cool Nissan Stagea with Skyline front end-

The shotengai nearby is one of the best I have been in.  The architecture, lack of people, and interesting shops made it a worthwhile walk-

A bench! In a shotengai! With space to sit on!

NICE men's clothing shop-

Chinatown!

I think there was a cheese concoction inside this thing-

I got one of the popular duck treats they had there.  I think I got a crap one that lacked a lot of duck and had too much other stuff that fell out all over the place-

Across from the parking lot was parked in was Meriken Park (from the word American maybe?), a popular place in Kobe right on the water.  In 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake destroyed an incredible amount of Kobe and killed about 4600 Kobe citizens.  There is little left to see from the damage but a small section of the park has been preserved to show the force of the earthquake-

I believe this was an aquarium-

There was also a strange selection of water craft.  The following two looked like something out of Thunderbirds-

The "pirate" ship was my favorite though-

I tried to take a "cool" photo of the car-

Rather than taking the boring highway or main roads back to Osaka, we headed up into the mountains looming over the city-

The roads were absolutely lovely to drive on and even made Yukino a little sick with the none stop left, right, left, right driving-

And finally, a man playing videogames while driving-