We’re in Kobe now, after a short multi-train journey from Arima early today. We have a nice hotel room right in the main shopping district and here’s the view as I write this:

Kobe’s one of the biggest cities in Japan and known for its beef (amongst other things) but first on our list is to visit a location I daresay most foreign tourists haven’t ever heard of. I’ll let you wait until tomorrow to hear about it.

There’s a mall across the street from our hotel and the 2nd and 3rd floors are an otaku’s paradise with all manner of game/anime/figure/card shops. I’ve already bought some stuff but will certainly spent more time there these next few days.

That’s KLS eating a chocolate taiyaki from a shop near the station (show in the background). She said it was really good, like a crispy pancake with chocolate inside.

I didn’t take many photos today – I was overwhelmed by the otaku mall – so to end this post here’s a specific story about a gacha experience. It starts with this machine:

If you translate the Japanese it says something about the machine containing photos of “someone else’s dog” and to collect all 15. It was ¥300 (about $2) a go and with the intention of giving whatever it was to Sue I threw my coins in and turned the knob and this came out:

A small ball with an even smaller… photo inside. “Surely this isn’t it“, I thought, “surely it’s a sticker“.

It isn’t. It’s what appears to be a handmade and hand cut tiny photo of a dog. Again: it’s not a sticker, just a slightly poorly printed photo. It’s exactly as described: I paid $2 for a tiny photo of someone else’s dog!

I was tempted to just toss it away, but I bought it for Sue and by golly it’s going to Sue. I hope she likes it 🙂