December 6th,

Day 3

I woke up, took a shower, and headed down to the hotel lobby for breakfast. Not everyone buys breakfast, so if you did, the front desk would give you a breakfast voucher, and you needed to bring that to the restaurant to be let in. It gave me some interesting thoughts. What if someone just printed the voucher with the correct date? Then he/she would have unlimited buffet style breakfast for the rest of his/her life, or as long as the hotel stays open.

Food for thought, yo.

The breakfast buffet options at this hotel was plenty. Here is a picture of what I took.

The restaurant also had Takoyaki, but it wasn’t finished when I took all the food; and once I was finished eating, the Takoyaki was done and I was too full to consume it. It was not bad.

Breakfast Verdict:

★★★★☆

After breakfast, I packed everything into my luggage, and moved forward to my next location.

Hotel name: Kobe Plaza Hotel

Address: Motomachidori 1-13-12

Price: 791.42 RMB (110.73 USD)

Verdict: ★★★★☆

After a 40 minute train ride, I arrived by my hotel. It was right across the street from the train station, which was rather convenient. I just dragged my luggage over there and left it to the front desk staff. One thing that left an impression on me was that the younger, inexperienced front desk staff was lead by a little bit older foreigner lady who speaks 100% flawless Japanese. I always thought that things would be the other way around in Japan.

Once I left my luggage with the front desk, I got to the sofa area and tried to make a reservation through phone. The call was immediately answered. I asked if it was the restaurant that I wanted to dine at, and the lady on the other side replied yes. She made a reservation for me at 5:30, which was the earliest dining time available. Should’ve said 6:00 PM, but I was kinda nervous, not just because I was nervous speaking a language I haven’t used in years, but because I generally do not like talking on the phone, so I just said yes to 5:30.

The lady on the other side uses “Keigo”, which is the much more complex and “nicer” way of speaking in Japanese. There are three types of communication styles in Japanese. One is the “Plain form”, which is spoken between friends and people of the same age group. One is “desu/masu form”, which is what you would hear from strangers and people who don’t know you. The last one is “Keigo”, which is the especially polite way to address someone. It is not used in daily speech now as “Keigo” shows a clear class divide, but the lady used Keigo whilst talking with me, which made me feel special. I love feeling special.

As I made my reservation, it was time for me to hit the famous Himeji Castle. As I exited the hotel, I noticed that there is a Coco Ichibanya curry restaurant right next to the hotel. I’ve had Coco Ichibanya in Westwood, next to UCLA because my friend Aileen said she tried it before in HK. I snapped this picture and sent it to her.

The train ride was normal, and I arrived at the Himeji Station promptly. Ever since I left the station and headed towards the bus stop, I’ve seen a tall and chubby girl everywhere. She caught my attention because she seemed to be in a hurry, and she ran a red light to get to the bus stop. She didn’t really have to run the red light, because the bus didn’t arrive in a while, and we got onto the same bus. You can also use your IC card on the bus, so all I had to do was tap my apple watch against the IC card pad.

I snapped a couple of pictures before heading in. It was majestic.

Once I got in, I FaceTimed my dad who’s home alone because my mom went on a business trip with our GM. He said that we’ve been there when I was much younger (2008), but I have 0 recollection of the building. Never take your kids when traveling around, they won’t remember a thing y’all.

After hanging up and went to the bathroom, I still saw the girl walking around. I bought the ticket, and headed towards the west flank of the castle. She followed me. Not that she is purposefully following me, we just went on the same path. Got to make that point loud and clear. When I got up there, a Chinese couple asked in English if I would take pictures for them. I said yes. I knew that they were Chinese because the husband’s phone was in Chinese and the camera app reflected that. I took a couple of pictures for them, replied in Chinese, we all had a good laugh, and I took a couple of pictures of myself (selfies).

Once I took my selfies, I saw the girl again. I didn’t have the best look at her camera app, but I am guessing she is Chinese as well. We’ve been on the same path for so long, might as well go say hi. Turns out, she is Chinese. Her name is Mina, she is from HK. She is also traveling in Japan by herself, and I was mighty impressed that she does not speak any Japanese. I would never dare to travel through Korea with English alone, but she has the imaginary balls to actually do what I feared to do. Mazel tav. Anyways, I asked her if she wanted to take the tour at the castle together, and she said yes. We became travel buddies for the day lol.

We went inside the castle. Here are some pictures that I took along the way.

The castle was built with the support of 2 large pillars, the East Pillar, and the West Pillar. It was a very impressive building made out of wood, at feudal times. It is not the castle that western people have in mind; it is a castle not for the enjoyment of the feudal lords, it is a castle purely for defense purposes. Every room in the castle is a place where they store weapons. We had to take off our shoes and get in, but it was well worth it. I loved every second that I spent in such a historic building.

On the top floor of the castle, there is a shrine. I thought that I already climbed all the way up here, might as well pray. The Japanese way of praying is that bow twice, clap your hands loudly twice, and then bow again. This is the way to pray in Shinto shrines, remember, only in Shinto shrines, not in buddhist shrines. Always put money inside the box before you pray though.

Here are some more pictures of the building. The stairs are very steep, and the stairwell caught my bag a couple of times. I think this is how you know how tall the Japanese soldiers used to be.

We walked outside, put our shoes back on, and toured the outside of the building. There is a line of holes on the exterior defense walls of the castle. I am guessing that those are for shooting arrows or guns while having the wall as covers. These designs are also seen on the Great Wall of China.

Since the castle has hundreds of years of history, it has been renovated throughout the years. Once in Meiji times(before, during and after WWI), once in Showa times (before, during, and after WWII), and once in Heisei times (from 1995 onwards to 2018). From the fish statues of different times, you can tell the technique has been upgraded every time the castle was renovated. The design of the fish also changed a little bit too. You have to be there.

Himeji Castle Verdict:

★★★★★

After thoroughly viewing the castle, me and Mina headed towards the Kokoen park. The ticket for Himeji Castle also included the Kokoen park, well, it’s a combo, and it’s cheaper to buy it that way. The Kokoen park is a giant garden built for the amusement of the feudal lords. It was very big and very pretty. We walked through every section, saw everything, and took many pictures. I’m still not the biggest nature guy, but Japan’s unique blend of nature and man-creation was fascinating.

Kokoen Verdict:

★★★★☆

Kokoen didn’t take much time to be fully explored, and I still had a little bit of time before I really need to head back to Kobe. I remembered that there is a Zoo on the outer flank of Himeji Castle, so I suggested that we go hit up that zoo. Mina didn’t want to at first, but since I am such a good convincer, we went there anyways. Admission fee was pretty cheap, something around 230 Yen. I clearly underestimated the zoo through its dirty exterior. It is very big, and it contained so so many animals including giraffes.

Himeji Zoo Verdict:

★★★★☆

Me and Mina spent some time there, saw all the animals, and it was time for me to go back to the station so I can be there in time for my reservation. We couldn’t find the bus stop that stops at Himeji Station, so we just walked towards the station and hoping that we could see a bus stop along the way. We did, eventually, after we walked about half way. Mina decided to spend some more time around Himeji Station, and we said goodbye there.

Once I got on the train heading towards Kobe, I met another person who I’ve befriended. His name is Brainen, and when I asked where he is from, he said Paris. We spoke in English of course, and when he pronounced said “Paris” but said it in French accent, I had absolutely no idea where that country is. I just smiled politely and nodded along. When I started to share information with the guy, I asked him again where he is from, and this time I caught the gist. Apparently people from Paris don’t like to call themselves French, which is funny.

He loves Japan, but he is going on a very different travel path than I am. While I live in hotels, he lives in hostels. Before visiting Japan, I had no idea what hostels were. They’re like cheap motels where you have to spend the night with a complete stranger. I did not like any part of that description, so I’ve stayed in hotels all the way in Japan. He told me some of the places he visited, and gave me some suggestions on where to go. I gave him the website that I used to design my travel path, and when he asked me to type it on his phone, I was surprised that French keyboard is different compared to the English one. Not by much, but enough to be annoying to a good typist like I am.

Since we’re both heading to Kobe, he asked me if I wanted to hang out after my dinner reservation, I said sure, and we followed each other on Instagram.

When we got off at the station, we said goodbye, and I headed towards my hotel. It was 4:30, I was a little bit early, so I’ve decided to go back to my hotel, rest for a bit, and head towards dinner. The place where I have my reservation is in a hotel, and it is a 10 minute walk from my hotel. The hotel that has the restaurant is also the most expensive hotel around town, and apparently, it was the first hotel in Kobe, so it’s got history.

After resting for a bit, I headed towards the restaurant.

Restaurant name: Steak House Medium Rare (Inside Kobe Oriental Hotel)

Address: 25 Kyomachi, Chuo-ku 17F Kobe Oriental Hotel

The hotel is located in a very busy business area of Kobe, and has a lot of fancy clothing brands around it. When I got in, I didn’t know where to go, so I asked the staff, which pointed me to the elevators and told me to go to the 17th floor. The restaurant is located on the top floor, and has three separate restaurants. When I got to the 17th floor reception, the staff took my name, asked me to sit, and after a while, took me to a different place to sit, before finally taking me to the restaurant.

I was seated by myself next to an empty teppanyaki grill. The hotel has a nice view of Kobe city, but I wasn’t seated next to the window. Oh well.

Soon, a staff member came over with a drink menu and a dinner menu. There are three options for dinner, pure meat, meat + vegetables, and more meat + vegetables. Since I can always add later on, I chose the middle option, meat + vegetables. Since I don’t like alcohol, the staff member pointed me to the non-alcoholic section, where there is a ton of selection on French made juice. I chose the “William-pear Nectar” juice. Good choice.

Once I’ve made my selection, and after a while, the staff member brought me my juice, and showed me the materials that will be used for tonight’s dinner. At first I wasn’t impressed. I knew this restaurant is expensive from all the reviews I’ve read online, so I was prepared to pay a lot; but I thought I would at least get more meat than that. Look at that tiny sliver of meat! I wasn’t going to be full on that!

But of course I kept that to myself. That staff member was my chef for the day, and apparently, one chef is in charge of only one party. That night, the restaurant only had a maximum of three parties, so there were no more than three chefs that night. That was fancy. I am never the person to be so fancy and pay more for the same food that I can pay less for; but I feel like I should take this opportunity and fully experience what the rich really feels like. It’s not like I dine like this every night, lol.

The chef started to cook the fish and started to bake the bread. Sounds good, right?

The first dish is “freeze-cooked beef with caviar”. The chef explained to me that while it looked like it was raw, it was cooked by low temperature, so it was “fully cooked”. I’ve heard of this technique before, but it is the first time that I’ve had it. It was certainly interesting. The texture is considerably different compared to meat that is either raw or cooked. It feels like you are eating a very dense meat ice cream, but you still have the feeling of eating meat. Combined with the taste of caviar, it was one of the most interesting food item I’ve had in a while. I was pleasantly surprised.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

The second dish is Kobe beef sushi. Similar to the one that I’ve had yesterday, the chef used a blowtorch to cook the meat. What is different though, is that the chef didn’t grill the underside of the meat first before putting it onto the rice. I think both ways to cook are correct, this way, though, the juice of the meat gets sucked up by the rice and makes it tastes a little more “premium”, if you know what I mean. Coupled with the sauce and the wasabi, it tasted like heaven. In fact, I’ve ordered it one more time at the end.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★★

The third dish is crab meat with cheese. I’ve had a lot of crab meat a day ago at Kani Doraku, so I wasn’t too excited to see crab meat. However, since this restaurant isn’t full on Japanese style, the crab meat was combined with blue cheese with some jelly on the side. It was sour, sweet, and salty at the same time, it was very interesting. The texture of the crab gets neutralized by the texture of the jelly; and swirl it up with cheese, it was very interesting. I loved it.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

The fourth dish, my favorite out of all, is Kobe beef sandwich.

The chef first started to cook the smaller beef, and then soaked up the juice with the bread. Of course he seasoned it with salt and pepper; but in the end, he added truffles on top. I swear, the flavor of the truffles made it so so much better.

I know it’s called a sandwich, but it only has one slice of bread on the bottom. The chef also acknowledged that it does not look like a regular sandwich. He instructed me to eat with my hand and with only one bite. I followed his instructions, and I simply could not believe how good this sandwich is. The meat, with the Kobe beef tenderness, coupled with the crusty texture of the bread that has soaked up all the juice, including the unique flavor of truffles, it was what they would call “sensory overload”. Not in a bad way, but I mean it in the best possible way. It was the best dish out of all the ones I’ve had in Japan thus far. I still couldn’t believe how good it was. I will quote Marshall from HIMYM: “I did not know food could be this delicious.”

The chef noticed me smiling while eating, and said thank you very much.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★★

The fifth dish, is the Codfish and some kind of fish’s sperm. Yes, Japanese people eat fish sperm, it’s not uncommon. I’ve had pufferfish semen with my cousin in 2018, it was freaking delicious, so I wasn’t too surprised. Plus, Chinese people eat animals’ kidneys. Lamb kidney + some raw garlic is one of the few things that I cry eating every time. The way to eat is that you dip the cod fish and the semen into the ponzu sauce on the right. The cod fish was meh, wasn’t the best. It tastes refreshing, but meh. The sperm though, is very delicate. It has a very soft texture, but has a delicate taste. I have trouble remembering the taste, but it certainly tasted complicated. This isn’t my favorite one, but still good.

Dish Verdict: ★★★☆☆

I took this picture of the main Kobe beef dish while it was still cooking.

The sixth dish is vegetables grill. These vegetables are sourced from local farms. The chef explained it to me that all of these vegetables, the mushroom, the zucchini, and the onions are all from Kobe. He saw that I was confused since I looked over to the window and saw no farms, and explained that Kobe is a big place, these are from the farms that are far away from here but is still considered Kobe.

Despite the origin story, it’s still just grilled vegetables. However, I do remember that everything was very sweet; the onions especially. The mushrooms were very juicy and tender. What more would you hope from vegetable grill?

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

After the vegetables, I was finished with my juice. I asked the chef for another one. I liked it enough so I snapped this picture. It is very dense, it’s not the typical juice that you can buy from a convenience store, that’s for sure.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

The main Kobe beef dish needs some time to cook. It is very thick, so it was cooked since the very beginning. I understand why, the heat needs to reach the inside. Cook it too fast, the surface will be charred. Cook it too slow, well, it will never get cooked. The timing needs to be precise when you’re preparing something this thick. And this is coming from a self-proclaimed “personal chef” that I branded myself on Instagram.

The next dish is called Kobe beef sukiyaki. I don’t know if you know what sukiyaki is, but from what I could see, that’s definitely not it. Sukiyaki is normally water based, and you boil the meat and dip it in raw egg. The way that this restaurant cooks it, is by first grilling it, then put sukiyaki sauce on it. You can’t see it, but there’s rice underneath it. The chef asked me to eat it by one bite. It was good. I can’t say much else, it’s what you would expect when eating sukiyaki sauce; but with the extra tenderness of Kobe beef, it’s definitely up there.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

Before the main dish, though, there is a palate cleanser. This dish is just what you see, noodles. It doesn’t have flavors, or if it did, I couldn’t taste it because I’ve had such flavorful food beforehand. It did what it was supposed to be: a palate cleanser.

Dish Verdict: ★★★☆☆

Unfortunately, the main dish, the big Kobe beef, is the only dish that I forgot to take a picture of. I hate myself for ever forgetting something so important, but what’s done is done. Let me paint you a word picture. In the middle, the chef had cut the beef in 8 pieces. On the right, there is pink salt and mustard. On the left, it’s soy sauce and wasabi. You can eat it however you like, but I liked the mustard one much better than just salt and just soy sauce.

However, it surprisingly wasn’t my favorite dish out of everything I’ve eaten so far. I get the fact that since it is the main dish, it doesn’t need the extra seasoning that is considered to be the “twist”, and you’re only supposed to enjoy the tenderness and the original flavor of Kobe beef by itself; but other than the expected tenderness and the expected flavor, it didn’t do much else. It didn’t surprise me like the other dishes, for example, the sushi, the sandwich, and the sukiyaki. The others, I find it wonderful that the chef was able to combine the flavor of the beef with the other ingredients, but this one, it was a bit boring.

It also could be because that I’ve had so much meat and food before the main dish, I was a bit full, so I wasn’t that excited. It could be because of a lot of different reasons, but I didn’t feel for the dish like I would for the other ones. It’s still good, don’t get me wrong, it just didn’t surprise me like the way that I hoped it would be.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

The next dish, which was imprinted into my memory, was the abalone. It didn’t stay in my head because of its taste. It’s still delicious, but it’s the way it’s cooked, it was too horrifying to watch. While the chef presented the main ingredients to me, I did not know that the abalone was alive. I’ve never seen a living abalone. Back where I’m from, we eat a lot of abalone, and our family usually cook them live too. I’m not the cook in my household, so I’ve never had the chance to cook an abalone alive.

The way that this restaurant cooks the abalone, is cook it while it was alive too. When we cook it, we just put the abalone in a pot and close the lids while it was being cooked, so we never see the abalone in its anguished form. The way that this restaurant did it, though, was all on display. I mean, it is true that the main purpose of going to a Teppanyaki restaurant is to see the food being prepared right in front of you; but this level of intimacy with your food was a little bit off-putting to me. The chef placed the abalone onto the teppanyaki grill, and while it was fine at first, as the heat goes through its shell to its meaty part, it started to stand up from its shell, perhaps full of pain, and started to twist in the most horrifying way possible. That’s when I realized that this abalone was alive, not dead. The chef, perhaps have seen it all, didn’t twitch his eyes or anything; but he could clearly see me being horrified. I asked him rhetorically if it was alive, and he smiled, answering yes. It’s, wow.

Still, it was pretty good. I’ve never had grilled abalone before. The chef, after the abalone has stopped twisting, lifted the meat part off from the shell using a knife, grilled the abalone for a bit; then he removed the organs of the abalone completely from the shell, grilled it for a bit, before using soy sauce to flavor up the organs. The organs are usually the most disgusting part of the abalone, and while we eat them in China, we don’t particularly enjoy the part about eating the organs. With the way that this restaurant prepares it, the organ becomes much more palatable, and is actually quite enjoyable.

The meat part, though, was pretty ordinary. Even though it’s grilled, the texture of the meat doesn’t feel significantly different from boil cooking it. The chef instructed me to first squeeze lemon juice onto the meat, and then dip it in pink salt. I swear, the lemon made it so much tastier than the way we eat it. It is much fresher too, perhaps from not being cooked all the way; but that’s the charm of Japanese food. Wow I’ve written so much about this one single dish, but that’s a real representation of what I feel. Wow.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

Before the last hot dish, since I’ve requested the Kobe beef sushi one more time, the chef has cooked it for me just like the way he did before. He did say that there is another rice dish coming and asked me if I still wanted to add the sushi. I still said yes.

The last hot dish, is a rice dish. The chef gave me three options. One, garlic fried rice, which is the only option that will be cooked in front of you. It’s only garlic, no meat, though. Two, Kobe beef Ochazuke, where you pour tea into rice, similar to what I’ve had yesterday at Kani Doraku. Three, a pasta, will be prepared by another restaurant that is on the same floor of this hotel, by a chef that cooks pasta only.

Since I paid a lot, I chose the Kobe beef Ochazuke. In hindsight, I really should’ve picked the garlic fried rice, because at least I would see another entertainment in front of me. I definitely would not pick the pasta, because I didn’t come all the way to Japan from the U.S. just to eat pasta again. That’s why I chose the Ochazuke, after eliminating the other two.

Surprisingly, the Ochazuke wasn’t prepared with tea; it was prepared with soup. The soup has been sitting on the Teppanyaki grill since I was there. If you scroll back to the first picture, you would see the pot sitting on the corner of the grill of other tables. Perhaps since this is the most popular choice, the restaurant has put it on the grill in advance, just in case.

I was too full from all the food, and the last sushi I had, so I didn’t quite enjoy this one like I hoped I would. It was very mild, very “relaxed”. Even though I was so full from all the food that I initially thought wouldn’t even fill half of my stomach, I still managed to eat everything from this bowl.

Dish Verdict: ★★★☆☆

Lastly, the dessert. For dessert, there are two items. First, is the Berry Sorbet with some edible paper. There is strawberry and raspberry. It’s not too sweet, and not too sour, it’s perfect.

Second, is the tea. I can’t remember exactly what kind of tea is it, but it is not strong. It’s not supposed to be. It doesn’t contain caffein either, so don’t worry about that. One thing that I remember very clearly, though, is with the tea cup. It’s in a completely matte texture. Both the cup and the plate that’s underneath the cup are matte. I remember being extra careful with the chinaware because I don’t want to scratch something that looks so cool, because, you know, matte china is still china, and they scratch much more easily than normal china.

Dish Verdict: ★★★★☆

Well, the desert was a perfect end to a perfect dinner that I couldn’t possibly have imagined how good it was going to be. I mean every word that I have written up there about each food item. They didn’t sponsor anything, although I hope they would, so every word here is from the heart. This is definitely one of the most memorable dinners I have ever had, and the taste of Kobe beef will significantly make me look down on any other kind of meat forever. The money was well spent. Period.

Restaurant Verdict:

★★★★★

After sitting at the table for a while, my chef already became someone else’s chef, I’ve decided to leave. I let Brainen know that I was done with my dinner, and was heading towards the Kobe ferris wheel. He said he was still occupied, but he will catch up. He didn’t, though, just to be forewarned.

I went to pay for my dinner, and it was taken care of by another chef. The restaurant wanted to have that kind of ambiance, so everything was extra dark. The chef had to fish out his glasses and read everything super carefully. I commented how dark the room was, and he laughed and explained the mood that the restaurant is trying to set. The bill came to be somewhere around 20,000 Yen, which is exactly what I expected it to be. It was well worth it, it was worth every single damned penny. The dinner took about two and a half hours. Worth every second.

But I wouldn’t come again, though, it’s too expensive. Maybe when I become a rich guy in the future, then I’ll definitely come again.

Since I’ve decided to go check out the ferris wheel, I headed down the elevator to the hotel’s front lobby again. I had such a big meal, so I decided to just walk there. The hotel isn’t far away from the ferris wheel which is right along the coast. Kobe doesn’t have a lot of touristy stuff to do, to be completely honest with you. The ferris wheel, perhaps is the only thing that is interesting enough that I wanted to pay a visit to.

Just to be safe, though, I asked the hotel staff member the direction of the ferris wheel. I know where it is, I have Google Maps on my phone; I just wanted to have some conversation in Japanese, which I didn’t have a lot of chance to do just these few days. The staff member was so nice, he gave me a pamphlet that had a map and specific descriptions of each area. This is how you know how fancy this hotel is.

I grabbed the map, thanked the staff member, and went on my way. It was a 30 minute walk to get to the ferris wheel. Kobe wasn’t too cold in December, but it’s not warm either.

As I walked, I saw the Kobe Tower. It looks pretty interesting, especially at night. The way that the lights inside the tower shining and the way it looks on camera, it looks like red velvet wrapping crystal.

Soon, I reached the shore where there is a “ship port”. I guess people can get on cruise ships here when the sun is still out. You can see the big ferris wheel here.

After some more walking, I arrived by the ferris wheel. I normally don’t care for ferris wheels, and I still don’t. I’m only doing this because this is the only thing that is interesting to do around here at that hour.

There’s no one else on the ferris wheel. I didn’t see anyone. I think I was the only one on there. While the wheel was spinning, from the speakers, there was a recorded guide that introduces the surrounding area and the history of Kobe. It was interesting; but the recording did not cover the entire ride. I’ve heard the recording at least three times while in the booth, and it was not interesting after the second time.

Ferris Wheel Verdict:

★★★☆☆

As I got off the ferris wheel and decided to end the day by walking back to my hotel, I noticed a giant Ultraman statue. I am a huge Ultraman fan, and Ultraman is the reason that I started to learn Japanese in the first place. While reaching the ferris wheel, I did walk pass this Ultraman store, but since I didn’t take much gander and since I didn’t see the giant Ultraman statue, I didn’t give it much thought when I saw some capsule machine toys outside. Now that I’ve reached the store, it’s closed. Damn shame.

Still, it didn’t stop me from grabbing a selfie with dear Ultraman himself.

On the way back to my hotel, I saw a rather interesting bronze statue. I don’t know why the designer specifically made the statue that exposing, but I like the way he thinks. Yeah, I know it’s a “he”.

I also saw a cool looking vintage sports car in a window next to my hotel. By then, the blisters on both of my feet were killing me, and after I got back to my room, I slept. Although not too well, since the noise coming from the train station right across the street from my room was very loud.

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