Finally..

Finally set up a blog since coming to Kobe, Japan and finally getting internet! YAY!!! We have been here for almost a month. Time sure does fly... This weekend we visited Kobe Nunobiki Herb Garden and Ropeway, next to Shin-kobe station. There were cable cars / ropeway that take you up to the herb garden at the top. Don't remember the last time I was on a cable car, so I was pretty excited to go on it. Until... I got on it and it left the station and I remembered my fear of cable cars and heights! Nonetheless, we got to see an awesome view of the port below! We made our way down the mountain/garden seeing the many varieties of herbs, flowers and bushes. It was super hot and humid (as is everyday) so we got about half way and sad down at this Mint Cafe in the glasshouse. We had this tasty burger which had lots of herbs in the pattie and in the bun. It came with a teapot and you could drink as much tea/coffee as you wanted within an hour! =D Towards the bottom we found this recreation area near these lily gardens. There was a little garden maze for kids and this "snowmaker", which operated at certain times in the day. Luckily when we got there it was almost time for it to turn on. No snow... but strong cooling wind and an occasional hit of water. Would definitely like to go again in Spring/ Autumn to see the different flowers and trees.

Dam we saw from the cable car

Mint area with occasional spurts of mist

Lambs ears. These are seriously the softest fluffiest things! "It's soo fluffy I'm gonna die!"

So many different types of basil

Saw lots of the huge bees

Sweat patches from backpack

Unlimited tea for an hour!

Herb burger

Blueberry bush

Cool plants, reminds us of victory bell from Pokemon

Random one white leaf amongst the green

Huge hanging plants

Funny bean

Sam and the "snowmaker"

Random pink lily

After church on Sunday, we went for ramen at a place called Ippudo near Motomachi station. I was super excited to try it as it is my first ramen in Japan!! It was a little confusing when we were ordering as there are red and white bowls with different meat/soup. When you order, you specify the level of firmness you want your ramen to be! It definitely didn't disappoint! The noodles were thinner than the ones in Sydney, the softboiled egg was perfectly cooked, the meat was super tastey and the soup was good (the tonkotsu soup was not unbearably thick like some of the places in Sydney).

Headed over to Daimaru (a large deparment store) in Motomachi afterwards to pick up some desserts. The bottom levels of most large department stores just have food! It's awesome! There aren't any places for you to sit and eat like in David Jones' food level. I bought a creme caramel and something else - it looked soo pretty.. ahhhh....

The custard in the creme caramel had an egg-ier flavour than the other puddings we've tried. The caramel at the bottom was near perfect. The other thing turned out to be some apple cake. It had apple flavoured Italian meringue on the top, soft (maybe stewed) apple in the middle and some sponge on the bottom. Num num num... Will definitely go back to try more of their desserts. A few of the desserts I just want the container/cup! hehehe...