Aaron's 23rd Birthday Japan 2007!

Kendra:

For Aaron's big 23rd birthday we went all over Kobe!
We started our trip at Kobe Motomachi Shotengai, which is basically a HUGE outdoor shopping street. I mean huge. Like at least a mile or two road of shops.

Imagine this below repeating for what seems like forever.

Then we headed off to this cool shopping area modled after a Medditterian village called Mosiac. It was pretty big with some crazy aracdes in it. They had a crane game for everything you could possibly imagine. We saw a Pringles crane game. Pringles. Yes, the chip. In a crane game. Devoted to pringles. Right next to the Kitkat crane game. No lie.

We returned here later for dinner. More on that later.

Our next stop was "Fish Cafe." See the giant fish above? It is three stories tall and made of sheet steel. Very impressive. The food was good too. I also saw one of Japan's famous wild cats catch a bird in mid-air with its mouth! Even the cats here are like ninjas.

After lunch we took a stroll around Meriken park...yes..that is a play off the word "American." It is a really old name for the port that was international...hence the American turning into Meriken. The name just kind of stuck. Well, it is now a memorial park to the victims of the 1995 earthquake that struck Kobe really bad. Thousands of peope died and countless buildings were destroyed. At Meriken park they have a section left untouched since the quake. The sidewalk is all torn up and the lamp post tilt at odd angles. A cool thing to see but kind of sad at the same time.

See those happy people up there in that picture getting large amounts of meat from that nice Brazilian waiter? Well, imagine us in that picture...eating ridiculous amounts of steak. For dinner we went all out to an all-you-can-eat Brazilian place at the Mosiac shopping plaza. You get all your side dishes yourself and then crazy Brazilian waiters who do crazy random things bring out unlimited amounts of meat on a stick. They then shave said meat from stick onto your plate where it will lodge itself in your arteries. Mm..mm..good.
Long story short, we ate alot.

Then we went up Kobe Port Tower for the night view. WOW!
(the orange tower is Kobe Port tower)

Kobe is known for its night view and man, it is so awesome.
None of these are our pictures though...we will post those later. Ours are much better.
So, Aaron had a great birthday. As soon as we get internet, he can tell you all about it. Bye!