Nunobiki Waterfalls

After all these months living in Kobe, we only just discovered how to get to the famous waterfalls nearby.


From Shin-Kobe station, you can start the climb up to the waterfalls, making sure to take note of the reminders not to litter:

It won't be long before you reach the lower falls:




As you continue walking up, there are several little shrines tucked into the mountain side.

I had never seen small, painted stones like this before in a shrine.

Only a few minutes more before you reach the next set of falls!

If you climb the stairs next to the falls, you can see a little shrine to your left at the top:

I was really interested in the little coiled snakes here. Not only were there some in the more focal part of the shrine, but off to the side hidden in the rocks as well--almost becoming part of the mountain. I looked up some interesting stories about snakes in traditional Japanese religion and culture (see this link, for example), but I think the one that might explain the snake coils at Nunobiki would be the ones that associate snakes with nature. Snakes are often believed to be in control of water, both granting it and denying it. They are also said to be in control of causing storms. It would make sense for the snakes to be in this little shrine, near the waterfalls. If you've heard any information in this regard, we'd love to hear about it!

The view from the top by the shrine.

On the way down, we were excited to spot a really neat temple. Here are some shots of what we saw:

I love how much was tucked into the trees or the mountain side.

We feel pretty lucky to live next to such an amazing temple and to such beautiful waterfalls. We've promised each other to make it out at least once a week throughout autumn, and we'll definitely post pictures of the changing leaves! Today we're off to hike Mt. Maya with some friends, enjoying the last day of a three-day weekend.

Cake Set at Saint Maria

Near Sannomiya station there is a little cafe called Saint Maria. Although the atmosphere leaves something to be desired (it's kind of like a smoky 70's diner, without any of the kind of classiness you might be trying to imagine), the cake set was perfect for a rainy day.


It was only 500 yen for your choice of cake and your choice of specialty drink. We chose the berry cake with a caramel latte.


This week we had Typhoon Roke messing up all kind of plans for sports day at school and draining the sunlight and happy weather. Despite the gloom, it was a nice chance to catch up on busy work, calm down after such a crazy busy summer, and fall into autumn. We've had chances to try and break into a bit of reading and creative endeavors, do lots of exercise, and go on fun little dates like our trip to Saint Maria cafe. Luckily sunshine is in the forecast all weekend, so we can relax in brighter moods!

I Love Takoyaki Parties!

We finally got around to buying a takoyaki maker, and decided it might be fun to make use of it for dinner on a rainy day like today! I've mentioned before that takoyaki means grilled octopus, but when using the machine at home, you can get really creative with what you put inside the batter.

We have the usual toppings here: octopus, cabbage, mayonnaise and takoyaki sauce. But, we've also got ingredients to make some with tuna, corn and cheese. We also thought we'd experiment with jalapenos and cheese to have something similar to jalapeno poppers! Yum!

As you can see below, the first step is to add the batter, overfilling the molds. Then, you can add whatever ingredients you like! As the balls cook, you flip them with a little skewer. Then, once they're finished, you pull them out, add mayonnaise and sauce, and devour!

I made sure to get a shot of Chad filling the machine for the fans of his ongoing shirtless activities.

We're considering making an entire calendar of shirtless Chad shots.

Many Japanese also add dashi (fish flakes) and green onions to their takoyaki, but it's really up to the person ordering/eating/making. Below you can see our jalapeno-yaki--delicious!


We're really into the idea of trying more and more ingredients in the future. Perhaps pizza flavors with bacon, cheese and pizza sauce? Or taco-flavored with beef, taco seasoning, cheese, lettuce, sour cream...? It seems to me Japan is excellent at making strange-sounding foods delicious, so why shouldn't we have a try? I've even heard about sweet versions using pancake mix and syrup. I'm foreseeing blueberry pancake balls, maybe chocolate chip ones dipped in chocolate and with sprinkles... the possibilities are endless!

Yakitori Flavored Doritos and news...

Yakitori, or grilled chicken on a skewer, is a really popular food in Japan. And now, it's also a flavor of Doritos! Chad and I decided to try them, and they really had that yakitori taste! Can't say the taste did much for us with the texture of Doritos, but they were interesting to say the least.

In other news, despite the business of work we've been able to have a lot of fun with recent visitors. Jenna came out in August for a couple weeks for a beer safari, and David came over from Korea for a few days last week. Also, last night I ran a 5K race in Osaka with my coworker. It was raining really hard, so I didn't take any pictures of the castle as I ran by, but it was really cool! We're planning to run another one next month and beat our times.

Tomorrow Chad and I are going with some friends to the Great Sannomiya September Craft Beer Tasting, and Monday we have the day off to relax. Yay for national holidays! Time is flying by fast, and we're filling our days with as many fun activities as possible to make it go even faster before we come home to visit! Less than 3 months!

Yodogawa Fireworks

It's been a while as Jenna was visiting for a couple weeks, but I still really wanted to post about the Yodogawa fireworks we were lucky enough to experience in August.


Our friend Mayu helped me get dressed in my yukata, and we were ready to see the famous show (supposedly shooting off over 30,000 fireworks!) in no time.




When we got to the station, hundreds of people were hustling down the stairs on their way to the fireworks.


We were generously given tickets that included seats at tables on the river, a bento (Japanese lunch box), a green tea and a beer.

Phew! 7000 yen!

Above, you can see some of the tables in front of the river and the view before dark, and below you can see some of us in our fashionable yukata!

Everyone had a lot of fun hanging out and eating bentos before the show.

We were also given these cute fans with pictures of wild boar on them--appropriate enough considering our nightly encounters with boar!

These fireworks are from the beginning of the show.

The pictures above, as well as the following video, were taken toward the start of the show. Needless to say that the beginning of fireworks in Japan are like our grand finales. Especially since I might have said that before?

These fireworks and our seats were amazing! Nothing will ever be able to compare to the great show we saw. We'll just have to hope to experience it again someday!