Day 21: 1/30 Kobe Round Two

                We woke up today full of hope and energy with the will to try to figure out how to get to the ropeway, but first we had to stop and get breakfast at good ol’ Mister Donut.  While we were finishing up, I decided to go next door to a grocery store to buy some strawberries because I heard from another student that the strawberries were magically delicious (which they were! So if you go to Japan, you should get some strawberries).  After breakfast, we took the train back into town but this time we changed trains and finally got to where we needed to be.  A huge relief set in among the whole group.  We took the gondola up the mountain to this little town square where there were a few shops but it was still very small.  The view from the top of the mountain was fantastic; we had a nice view of pretty much the entire city (with the exception of some of the hills from the mountain).  From there, we walked down a winding road.  About a quarter of the way down the mountain there was this really cool greenhouse that was filled with all sorts of flowers and plants (many arranged in valentine themed formations).  After we walked through the whole greenhouse we happened upon the most wonderful, relaxing place.  There was this random herbal footbath that was set up overlooking the city.  We stayed with our feet soaking in the footbath for as long as we possibly could before we had to leave.  We walked down to the halfway point and took the gondola the rest of the way down.

                We then headed to the port terminal where the ship was newly located after its transit between Yokohama and Kobe.  Once there, we sat in the terminal to get some much needed wifi and facetime with family and the boyfriend.  It was very nice to be able to see everyone’s faces, but sadly my facetime stopped working for some unknown reason.  After numerous attempts and fails to restore the feature, I called it quits.  Later in the night some friends and I indulged in a Japanese classic… karaoke.  Now, Japanese karaoke isn’t like the karaoke that most of you are used to where there is one person in front of the entire room singing.  With Japanese karaoke, you and your friends get a small room to yourselves where you can pick all of the songs that play and what you all want to sing along to.  This is much more my style because I don’t like singing in front of people (especially alone), so this style made me much more comfortable.  We all had a great time! I highly recommend you try karaoke if you go to Japan.