Return to Kobe, Day Two

The second day we hopped a train to the district of Nada, where we started off with a tour of a sake brewery.  When we lived in CO we took tours of local mead and beer breweries, so it was something I wanted to do before leaving Japan.  There are a plethora of sake breweries in Nada, and they each have a slightly different history and way of making sake.  We chose Kiku-Masamune because it was easily accessible from the train station and advertised a museum component.  It was a wonderful experience and quite educational for me.  It was free to enter and we also got a sake tasting.  We bought a few bottles as presents and one for ourselves, and the nice cashier deftly threw in some commemorative sake cups on the sly.

The pictures above come from the museum.  The process this brewery utilizes is called kimoto zukuri, a traditional method of making moto, or sake seed mash.  It starts by mixing malted rice with steamed rice and well water, then kneading it like you would bread to grow yeasts from a special introduced mold.  Natural lactic acid bacteria grows and stimulates the growth of proper sake yeasts, which then kill the mold and the bacteria, leaving behind a clear, dry sake.  The sake was indeed clear and dry, with a light yet noticeable taste.  I have a very picky alcohol palate, but I thought this sake was delightful.

After the sake museum we got on an island liner train for Rokko Island, one of the first man-made islands.  We crossed a red suspension bridge to get to it.  The architecture on Rokko Island was unique.  Buildings were built at odd angles to each other, staircases and alleys lead from building and building, and vast complexes were set into rolling hills.  We wondered at the architecture at the time, and I'm still wondering about it.  We had confirmation on its oddity when we visited the Hyogo Art Museum a few days later, but the display there did nothing to help me understand the architecture.  I'm left with a general sense of confusion and a great deal of enjoyment, as it was quite interesting to explore and to look at.  We discovered an amazing foreign food store that even carried rice pasta!  There were so many delicious, well-priced things there I could eat that we decided Kobe would make a great place to live.  Besides for that store, Rokko Island was relatively quiet the day we visited.  The Fashion Museum was closed, so unfortunately we didn't get to explore that.  We did, however, wander through some high-rise office buildings, where we found an oriental carpet museum, of all things.


Taking a brief break to go back to our hotel, we set out again to see Minatogawa jinja,  located right across the street.  It is one of the larger shrines in Kobe, and very impressive as well as beautiful.  To the left is a picture of a building dedicated to the Fox God Inari.  I loved the lanterns and bright vermilion color.  To the right is a stack of donated sake barrels.  The one with the chrysanthemum flower on it is from the brewery we visited!

The main hall of Minatogawa Shrine.

We ate dinner at a fantastic Mexican restaurant in the Sannomiya district.  The chef fried the corn tortillas so I had fresh, crispy tacos.  I haven't eaten such tacos ever... usually all the interesting crispy concoctions are made from wheat.  I had lovely avocado tacos with tons of veggies and crispy chicken enchiladas.  After dinner we went to see Ikuta jinja, the most celebrated shrine in Kobe.  We just caught the last night of the New Year's festivals.

The main hall of Ikuta Shrine.