Day 5: Back to the future

Tokyo-Kobe May 17th

Today was our last day with Kei and we were sad to leave. We had so much fun with him. But, we were excited to finally see Marina. It took us about 4 hours by train to get to Kobe.

Kobe is one of the best cities to live in Japan, I think. It is big enough to get whatever you want, 24 hours, and never be bored. It is also small enough to not get overwhelmed by all the human traffic. It is also very close to the beach, and has beautiful, green, chocolate-kissed shaped mountains in the background.

Marina's Neighborhood in Kobe

When we got there, we caught up with Marina at her favorite kaiten-zushi place.

kaiten-zushi

This place is INSANE. It is so Japanese.

Basically, you sit down in a booth, and beside you, little plates of sushi come out. Each plate costs 100 yen ~ 1 doller. You take what you like off the conveyer belt, and when you are finished, you throw the plate down a shoot off your table. If something you want doesn’t come out fast enough, you can order it off a computer at your table, and it will come shooting out off a little cartoon boat that stops at your table via another conveyer belt. Everything is computerized. You get beer from a vending machine, and tea from a hot water dispenser at your table.
When you are finished, the computer prints out a ticket based on how many plates you have thrown out, and you take it to the front to pay.

Its awesome.