The Kobe Luminarie Festival commemorates the Great Kanshin Earthquake of
1995, using light fixtures donated by the italian Government This is
the festival’s 15th anniversary.
Kobe is a
famous port town in Kansai known for its sake-fed cattle, but this
December, I heard about a light festival going on and decided to go. I
was going to take Nicky during a weekend day, since it is a bit of a
journey (on a rapid train, it takes an hour each way), but my friend
You-san warned me against it, as she had gone the weekend before and
said that there were so many people that it was hardly enjoyable.
Putting this into consideration, we decided to go tonight, with Erin,
since there would, in theory, be less people.
We were a little late leaving, and got
a tad lost on the way, but eventually we found the exhibit. It was
gorgeous. Despite the somewhat conventional choir music being broadcast
through the whole site, I had a lot of fun. It was still pretty crowded,
but I imagine that if we had gone on a weekend like I had originally
planned, it would have been even more packed.
We
didn’t stay long at the festival, despite the commute time, as we didn’t
want to get stuck in the mass hordes of people, so started to head back
to the station. We picked up candy apples on the way, but saved them
for eating at home (which I promptly got sick from later). I was pretty
exhausted at this point so slept as much as I could on the train. When
we got to Kyoto Station, we made a pit stop at Cafe DuMonde (yes, the
Louisiana French Quarter Company) where I got a green tea latte to keep
me awake for the bike ride home. All in all, a great day, despite the
fact that I was completely wiped out!