Zōkyō

Under the roof of a king…

We made it up to Himeji Castle and took the classic tourist shot. It was one of those, “Excuse me, would you please take our photo.” I always hand pick these folks, I won’t just ask anybody, but it just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover because despite handing this guy a simply point and shoot camera, with all the settings right, he still managed to completely botch it. I cropped the hell outta this to get the frame I wanted in the first place, hence the super lo-fi. More Himeji photos to come…

via JR Sanyo line

Kobe Mosque was founded in October, 1935 in Kobe and is Japan’s first mosque. The mosque was confiscated by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1943. However, it continues to function as mosque today. It is located also in the Kitano-cho foreign district of Kobe. Owing to its basement and structure, the mosque was able to endure through the Great Hanshin earthquake.

The mosque was built in traditional Turkish style by the Czech architect Jan Josef Švagr (1885–1969), the architect of a number of Western religious buildings throughout Japan.

Then we walked over to the Kitano Ijinkan which is a historical district in Kobe and contains a number of foreign residences from the late Meiji and early Taishō eras. This was the house of “Ben” who was an English hunter rare and big game animals a huge polar bear and a moose which are displayed inside.

The next morning we started off at Ikuta Shrine. The Shinto shrine is located in the Chūō Ward of Kobe, Japan, and is possibly among the oldest shrines in the country.

According to Nihon Shoki, it was founded by the Empress Jingū at the beginning of the 3rd century AD to enshrine the Kami Wakahirume, and was used as the base for a festival welcoming warriors back from the latest attempt to invade Korea. It now apparently carries a reputation of being a place at which NOT to marry as many famous Japanese couples who have been married here have since divorced.

We had a long day wondering walking up and down Kobe’s hills. Heading back to our hotel, we stopped for a glass of red wine at a really cool place called “Diente Diente” before we did. Red walls, a great big bar, and friendly staff, with “Coffee and Cigarettes” playing on the screen. Perfect little hole in the wall in a really cool neighborhood. Well worth stopping by for a cafe and some window shopping on a trip to Kobe.

We still had two more days ahead of us, so we went home to make a little place for the next day then crashed.

Raccoon Dog and Blowfish