神戸: Kobe and the Luminarie Festival


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!