I woke up at dawn this morning as the ship would arrive at 6AM and I wanted to record a time lapse of the arrival.
The ship had already passed the little Kobe airport before I set up the GoPro, but the airport was quite small.
As the ship arrived I finally chose the correct side of the ship and the dock was on the side with the camera.
I finished packing for my room change and was ready to go off before 7 AM, although we weren’t clear until almost 7:30 AM.
Today’s port guide…
Today’s Onboard Activities:
I was one of the first off the ship. I stopped by the tourist information location which was less helpful than usual as they changed my plan for the day as they said it would rain later today. I had planned to go up the ropeway and walk down past Nunobiki Falls. The ropeway didn’t open until 10 AM, so I decided to hike up from Shin Kobe station.
The portliner train was right next to the port. I took it to the subway station to take it to the Shin Kobe station
I lost a few minutes searching for the correct subway line as well as trying to find the correct exit to go to the waterfall trail. I eventually did find the sign for the Nunobiki waterfalls on the first floor of the Shin Kobe station.
The first part of the hike was actually fairly easy as the wilderness is literally on the back side of the Shin Kobe station.
The waterfall closest to the Shin Kobe station was Mentaki Falls. It was really easy to get to.
I continued hiking up to the other waterfalls.
The next waterfalls were Meotodaki and Ontaki which were so close to each other it was possible to get them both in the picture.
There was a nice overlook of the city on the way up further.
To add to the effort I took a wrong turn as Google maps seemed to show a trail made a loop, but just went up a mountain. Now that I look at the map I took a picture of it is very clear I should have stuck to the main trail. But at the very least I got some nice photos of the ropeway and the city.
At the base of the reservoir (but many meters below it) was Gohanmatsu waterfall. It was nice as well.
The mirror like reflection on the reservoir was nice, but not necessarily worthy of hiking up to it.
I also made the mistake of walking up to the herb garden…it was a steep hike. I did get a few pictures of the intermediate ropeway station and the city below.
The way down was much faster (35 minutes from the herb garden) and easier, although there were a few steps that needed care.
On the way down I saw a wild boar (pig, not bear). It was the first wild pig I’ve seen. Luckily it was on the other side of the falls.
I took the metro to the main shopping area and walked to the maritime museum and took some photos outside. I was tempted to go to the museum to see the Kawasaki motorcycles, but the weather was threatening.
The weather was really starting to look bad so I rushed to the location of the free bus run by the port. The bus left at 2PM and arrived less than 10 minutes later.
I went through the photo session and security and was back on the ship.
I bumped into the cruise director and she commented that she liked my theatrics with the egg drop.
I stopped by my cabin to drop off my stuff. This cabin was accessible, but was very similar to the last one.
I went back out to get some better photos and got back on the ship to get some lunch.
I grabbed a slice of pizza, and tried the tacos and decided to get an ice cream sundae. Oh I did also have an Amaretto Manhattan.
I watched the sake barrel breaking ceremony again, but didn’t take any of the free sake, because I wasn’t going to be able to drink all 15 of my drinks anyways.
There was a local band at the Kobe cruise terminal to perform while we sailed away. All of the cruise terminals had festivities in every port which was great.
The sailaway was exciting as a tourist boat weas chasing us and actually got fairly close to the ship.
The visibility wasn’t great, but I was able to see the very small Kobe airport. It’s no wonder they built the massive Kansai airport in the middle of nowhere.
I had dinner in the main dining room again. This time I had the baked potato soup (very good) and the pork tonkatsu for my main.
Today’s dessert options… I had the souffle
Today’s timeline:
