;)
Breakfast was earlier this morning and we watched a short video on traditional Japanese houses (ah! Now we know what Ma means!). We took a bunch of trains and managed to make our way to Kobe (Is Kobe Bryant named after Kobe?) Upon arrival in Kobe, we realized that the movie Ponyo must have been filmed here. Shortly after, this was interrupted by the consumption of delicious pastries (DELISHUS)! We finally made our way across the longest suspension bridge in Japan. At Awaji Island, we saw Tadao Ando's Water Temple. While taking photographs of the temple, we peeked the interest of an older Japanese man because he was sneaking pictures of the group (all dem white-ees, sorry Rochelle, Bernice and Andrea you guys were unwanted in the photos). When we left the temple for our epic walk back to the gardens (Jesse got a red neck), we stopped by a local mom and pop joint that served okonomiyaki, a Japanese pizza.
;)
Then we went to the gardens (for Jesse, it was dream come true!). Within the massive gardens, several concrete structures peeked out through the nature. The hundred square terraced garden Ando designed really complimented the concrete structures with nature (kind of like vanilla ice cream complimenting the DELISHUS ice cream cone). We then waited on the street corner for the bus. From the train schedule, Bernice and Jesse (plus Amanda) were able to decipher the Japanese language (not really). We got on the next train and learned an important lesson: spray on hair doesn't fool anyone (meanwhile, Piper was being bombarded by a booger bomb). After getting the train, we got only a little lost. Actually we went the wrong direction for about ten minutes and found the Santa Hotel (where its Christmas all year round!).Stumbling through the streets, we were exhausted and in need of FOOOOOOD! Eventually we ended up at a Chinese restaurant where we had a giant 6 course feast (poor Bernice had to fight off the hyenas to get the leftover scraps). And if 6 courses wasn't enough, we all got parfaits and they were DELISHUS!
;)
Sayonara!
Rochelle, Amanda and Jesse