Tuesday Oct 13, 2026
Hi Gang! We made it to Kobe! But didn’t find any Kobe beef! But we did find lots of sake! We did a tour that included the Sake Museum, a drive to the top of Mount Rokko for views over Kobe, and a ride down the Rokko Cable Car. (In Pittsburgh we’d call it an “Incline” and in Europe they’d call it a “Funicular” but here they call it a “Cable Car”).
Believe it or not, the Sake Museum was really interesting. It’s similar to making wine but uses rice instead of grapes. It was a really important product for this area and the rice and water here make it unique and some of the best. The whole process is overseen by a person called a Toji, who is the local expert on sake. It was very interesting!
We then drove up this very winding road to the top of Mount Rokko. While it was a beautiful day, once we got up that high there was a little haze in the air so the pictures weren’t crystal clear. We then took the Rokko Cable Car down. The cable car is almost 100 years old so thank goodness we got down safely! Overall, it was a very fun excursion.
We got back to the ship, had a light lunch then caught a few rays. The weather each day has just been perfect. Sunny and high 70’s each day and no humidity. We are so lucky since right before we got to Japan, they had 37 straight days of rain! That’s the most in a row since they began tracking it in 1886. And they recently had three typhoons in the area right before we got here so the weather Gods have been good to us!
We chilled in the late afternoon and got ready for dinner. We had dinner in the main dining room tonight. I had the Deviled Eggs for my appetizer, the Salmon for my main and a Nutella Chocolate dessert. All were very yummy!
After dinner we went to the show called Timeless put on by the Holland singers and dancers. It included lots of pop classics as well as classical crossover hits. Songs like The Prayer and other powerful songs. It was a great show!
We ended the night listening to the piano player. Tomorrow we are in Kochi, Japan. Another day, another new port! Can’t wait!!
