Kobe--our second day

The kids and I took a walk through Kobe in the morning. Most shops were still closed. Two people stop by a street shrine for a quick prayer. Asher noticed the tangle of wires on many of the streets.

Restaurants have displays of food that are somehow shellacked and always colorful.

In the afternoon, we rode the train to an event Steve organized: a visit to the oldest Protestant congregation in Japan. Charis chills on the train in her new Japanese duds. We walked through several Kobe neighborhoods on our way to the church, passing this waterway and park.

The church is on the top of a hill overlooking Kobe, and we enjoyed talking with the Methodist minister, an American who has lived in Japan for forty years. On the way home we passed this tiny shrine and a gas station with hanging pumps.


We had a few Yen left to spend, so the students we were with convinced us to spend our last Japanese money on...Belgian waffles. They were delicious!

Back on the ship, the dining rooms were buzzing with everyone telling their stories. Worst story was the student whose passport was stolen in Yokohama. The ship is not allowed by law to carry any passenger who does not have a passport. So half an hour before we left Yokohama she was cordially told to get off the ship, find a police station, make her way to Tokyo and try to get another passport and meet up with the ship in Kobe. She succeeded with all of this and her family is trying to get their senator to issue her (another) Chinese visa before we arrive in Shanghai in two days. Other students had better experiences staying in monastaries, Tokyo "capsule" hotels, and ancient guesthouses with ritual baths. All in all, we learned a tremendous amount about ancient and contemporary Japan in our brief days here.

We have two days of school and then we'll be in Shanghai. The students are exhausted from their travels and everyone wants to share stories...not sure how productive these two days will be, but everyone is genuinely glad to reconnect after our time away.