To anyone coming to Kobe in the future, and considering attending Kobe Luminarie, I won't tell you not to do it, but I'd advise you to be prepared for the worst when you do. It is the most popular event on the Kobe calendar, and people come from all over Japan (and the world, if you count tourists like us), so being able to see Luminarie is a marathon effort in itself.

I'll get back to Luminarie a bit later.

Firstly after a minor sleep in, we went down for breakfast, and took the bags. At this hotel, even though we're staying 2 nights, we weren't able to book 2 straight nights in the same room, because there was no availability for a twin room for tonight (Saturday night). So instead we booked a twin room last night, and a double room for tonight, which is all they (or any other Toyoko in Kobe) had available. This mean't that we had to do a frustrating check-out of the twin room this morning, leaving our bags in the lobby all day, then a check-in to the double room this afternoon. Annoying, but only a minor inconvenience.

After a fairly dull (and late) breakfast we left the hotel at around 10am to do some exploring of Kobe. First port of call was the train station, but not to catch a train, but rather to buy bus passes. Kobe, like Kyoto is very well covered by an efficient and cheap bus route which loops the city. At least we thought it was efficient, until we tried to catch a bus later in the afternoon, but I'll come back to that.

We found the bus stop, and boarded the moderately crowded Kobe loop bus headed for the Shin-Kobe ropeway. This ropeway is a 1.5km ropeway, taking around 10 minutes, running from near the Shin-Kobe train station, up to a herb garden at the top. According to wikipedia "Its scenic view is popular among tourists". Not this tourist. It was nice enough, but honestly, it was pretty dull. We were all fairly bored. It didn't help that visibility wasn't great today. So to sum up the ropeway, it was a ropeway up, some quick photos at the top, and ropeway back down. Another thing to put on the "been there, done that, never again" pile.

Once back at sea level, we headed down to Kobe Harborland, a popular shopping and entertainment area down on the Kobe waterfront. After browsing some of the shops to fill in some time before lunch, we emerged from the shopping centre on the harbor side, to what appeared to be a kiddie amusement park. Ferris wheel, and roller coaster, merry-go-rounds, and a few other rides dotted the park. My girls, with their Disneyland experiences still fresh in their memories, wanted to ride the rollercoaster. As there was some time to kill before lunch they jumped in line, while (very reminiscent of Disneyland) Veronica and I stood by and froze for 5 minutes. Still, they had a great time on it, so it was worth it. When they got off, and both begged to go again, we weren't as accommodating. Disneyland rides are free. This stupid rollercoaster was $5 each per ride. We kept moving, and headed back in to the shopping centre for lunch.

After looking through the lunch offerings, Veronica suggested one she'd seen on a sign earlier that day (and even earlier on this trip as they have another restaurant at Dotombori, Osaka). The restaurant is called Bikkuri Donkey (which translates to Surprise Donkey). Weird name for a restaurant, but then I've given up trying to understand some of the weird stuff I've come across in this country (which is the same stuff that makes this country such a cool place to visit).

Bikkuri Donkey is a strange mix-up of cultures. The best way I can describe it, is to take an Americanised steakhouse style restaurant, and Japan-ize it. It has all of the Texas style stuff lying around that would would expect. Vehicle number plates, barrels, hay bails, etc. But then there is a weird Japan twist, on everything, and that includes the food, as well as the décor.

But I have to say, this was probably my favourite meal in Japan of this trip. It was that good. Everything was done perfectly, and it started with the seat. After a short wait, we were led to our table which was a booth overlooking Kobe harbour. The waitress stood a wooden menu the size of a window on the table and left while we chose our lunch. This place seems to specialise in hamburgers, but the Japanese twist here is that hamburger doesn't mean hamburger. It means meat pattie, with a comprehensive range of toppings and side dishes to chose from. Not a burger bun in sight.

The food, while simple enough, was magnificent. I'm disappointed that I wont get to try it again on this trip. It was that good.

Midway through the meal, who should show up, but Santa Claus, Mrs Clause, and 2 Japanese elfettes. Kinda weird, but the girls got a kick out of it. We chatted to Santa briefly (an American, as was his "wife") before they had to keep moving to spread merriment to other diners. They happily posed for photos with the girls though.

After fixing the bill, and exiting the Donkey, it began raining. As we were arriving this morning, we saw passengers boarding an "aqua bus" in a nearby carpark. The aqua bus was basically a small road-going bus (4 wheels, licence plates, etc), with seats both in the cabin, and in an open area on the roof, which was also a boat. The bus would drive passengers to the boat ramp, drive down, and simply drive out into the harbour for a tour. We thought that would be a good novelty, so we briskly walked through the train the short distance to the area where we'd seen the bus.

No sign of it. It was either out at that point, or just gone for the day. We couldn't even see any signage on how to book a ride. So admitting defeat (and noticing the time was slipping away from us anyway, we decided to return to the hotel to get checked in and ready for Luminarie tonight. It was then that Luminarie bit us for the first time.

The Kobe loop bus was due at 3pm, and as it was 2:45pm we decided to wait for it. And wait. And wait. at around 3:20pm a little man working for the bus company came out and told everyone something, something, something, bus, something, something, Shin-Kobe, something, something, deray, something, something. Veronica translated this to mean that due to the setting up of provisions for Luminarie (which wasn't due to start for 2 hours yet) that the bus was delayed, and wasn't due for another 15 minutes. We decided to wait, but many in the line didn't, wandering off, hailing taxi's etc. 15 minutes came and went, and the little man again told us it was delayed. We figured that out for ourselves. Foreign, but not completely stupid. A short time later he came back out, much more excited than when we saw him last. Another bus driver had just turned up, so they were unleashing the "spare bus".

We piled onto the spare bus, and that bus driver took off like a rally driver on a special stage. Weaving in and out of traffic, bikes and people, he was doing an admirable job of making up time, and not killing anyone. Our progress swiftly halted however when we hit the region of town set aside for Luminarie. Even though it was over and hour and a half before the lights were due to be switched it, it was bedlam. People absolutely everywhere. Countless police with red light-up batons trying to keep order. People were everywhere. Cars and buses were everywhere. Traffic lights were now meaningless, and were being ignored. If there was a gap, a car or bus would fill it (whoever got there first) regardless of red lights or road rules. It was insane. And slow. It took us 30 minutes to travel a few hundred metres from one bus stop to another (where we were due to get off). The girl operating the doors, ticketing and voice-over commentary wouldn't let us get off between stops though.

We eventually made it through the insanity of downtown Kobe, and back to our hotel. We were greatly assisted by the fact that the rest of Kobe was a comparative ghost town. Everyone was down in the main part of town preparing for Luminarie.

After dark, we rugged up warm, and headed out to find, and hopefully see Luminarie. Veronica was concerned that we wouldn't find it. I was however, pretty confident. We simple walked for 10 minutes to the west of our hotel, and joined the queue. And oh I wish I was joking.

It is hard to believe that so many people could gather in one place, just to see some lights. I can't be too critical, because I was one of the crowd, but it was just insane. The line up took up full streets (so ~30 people wide) and snaked for kilometre after kilometre. We joined the queue just after 6pm, and we shuffled our way through the streets of Kobe, finally reaching Luminarie at around 9pm. Absolute insanity. I can't find attendance figures on the net at this stage, but it would be a staggering number of people marching through the streets to see it.

After 3 hours of shuffling, we cleared the bottlenecks in the path, and the pace quickened to almost walking pace for most of the remainder of the snaking journey through the streets. When we arrived at the lights, they were indeed amazingly pretty, but I think that having to wait for so long left me expecting more.

There is an amazing number of lights, and it is absolutely beautiful. It is all the more impressive when you consider the fact that every globe was hand painted. Every single one, apparently. Still, after queuing for so long, with so many people, I was a little underwhelming. I'm not sure why I feel that way, because after all it is exactly what I was expecting, and it was exactly the same as every photo I've ever seen of it, if not even more impressive, yet I still left feeling underwhelmed. Perhaps I was just tired of queuing, tired of being elbow to elbow with hundreds of thousands of people I didn't know, and just plain tired from stop-start queueing for 3 hours.

With all necessary photos taken and lights looked at, we headed for home. With about 100,000 other people. It didn't help that we were staying close to the train line, which is where many of the hoard needed to go. It made it a little less painless that we found another Aussie couple to chat to, from Townsville, also over on a holiday. We bid them farewell when we passed their hotel, and kept walking.

By this time it was 10:30pm, and we were all completely cactus. Some simple dinner from a restaurant near the hotel, then back to the hotel and into bed. Long, long day.