After spending four days with Hiro-san and his family, it was time for me to go north... just as far as Kobe!! hehe...
Unfortunately this entry won’t have any pictures since I didn’t have my camera with me... I didn’t know that Hiro-san would offer to keep my luggage until I had to go to Tokyo... that was so nice of him, because that was one HUGE luggage... but... I had placed my camera there, sooooo... I forgot to take it with me to Kobe!!! (I do that very often!!! I know I'm a dork!! >.>)
So... I arrived at Shin-Kobe... I left my hand-luggage in a locker at the station and went to roam the city since I had a good five hours to spend before going to the youth hostel... I had never stayed at a youth hostel before since I am the type that likes to have there bed-sheets fixed every morning and the room cleaned up!!! (yes... I know... I am an obnoxious little classy brat!! Cant be helped really!!)
My first stop was the Kobe port to see the tower!! It was beautiful in the morning; gorgeous at night... at least it didn’t look like a pile of metal!!! >.> (In the future you will understand the nature of this comment)
Since I had no camera I decided to sketch... ^^ ...when I scan my sketches of Kobe you can see them... One thing that made me wonder was that the people passing by would smile at me... (*^*)
After spending an hour at the port I made my way to the Oji ZOO!!!!!!!! *(^o^)* I don’t really like zoo's because they keep animals in dens, but at the same time I love them because animals are safer in zoo's than in nature... doesn’t make sense right??? huh, the magic of being... ME!!!!! :P
I arrived at the ZOO and got my ticket that was fairly cheap... Oji ZOO is considered a small ZOO but to me it looked huge... It took me six hours to go around it and even managed to make a complete fool of myself!!! :P yeah... stay tuned, that was like the most embarrassing moment in my life... I think... *hmmm*
First stop was the Flamingo pond!!! The sight of all those birds together with there unique pink colour was breathtaking... I had never seen Flamingo's in real life so I was very excited... I did a quick sketch but I truly regretted the fact I didn’t have my camera... (One good reason to visit again ^^)
Next stop was the "Animal and Children country"... I know... the name was weird but I wrote everything down so I could remember when I returned home!!! :P This was divided into small pavilions; the Koala pavilion, the Red Panda pavilion (adorable creatures, wanted to take one with me at home), the Squirrel and small birds den and the animal petting area... yes, u can actually pet domesticated animals!!! :P
Following the trail I ended up to the Giant Panda pavilion... I suddenly got the urge to jump in the den and give a big hug to the Panda that was eating leisurely in front of me!!! It was so adorable!!! *(^o^)* (thinking about it now, the panda reminds me of AI... adorable and huggable!! *rolls eyes*)
I stayed there for about 20 minutes until I completed my sketch... there was this boy with a panda hat that sat next to me and was smiling at me the whole time...
Oh well, I continued on, and reached the Polar Bear pavilion... once again I had to fight the urge of jumping in the den to hug the amazingly beautiful creature!!! Polar bears are one of the reasons I want to go to Antarctica!!! ^^ Hopefully sometime soon!!!
Next stop... the Sea Lion pavilion... heh... and here is the part where I embarrassed myself!!! *whistles*
I love Sea Lions... and when I was young I always thought that in a previous life I was a Sea Lion (don’t laugh, we all have our moments)... Anyway... as I was observing the Sea Lions swim in the pond, another one came towards me... I averted my eyes and looked at the cute animal when it started shouting... I was surprised by this and impulsively answered back... >.> (apparently I can speak their language!! O.o)
So, the Sea Lion answers back hitting its front flippers like clapping... guess what happened next??? I conversed with the Sea Lion for about minutes... *whistles*
The embarrassing moment was when I realized that people were standing around me taking photos and videotaping the whole thing!!! (>_<)
One of the people actually urged me to continue m(_ _)m ... but instead I just bowed and left looking down...
Yeah... I think that is the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to me!!! Luckily I haven’t seen any photos or video of me online so I guess they respected my privacy!!!! ^^;
After all that caffafle, reached hurriedly the "Animal Pasture pavilion" where you could see Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Borneo Orangutans, Mandrills, Abyssinian Colobus and Siamang apes... I took my time going slowly through each of the dens... the old man who had urged me to continue talking to the Sea Lion had followed me... he came to talk to me and I was surprised that his English was so good!! He told me that he was an English teacher when he was younger... his wife smiled at me ever so warmly...
We started conversing about where I was from and what I liked about Japan... u know... the usual stuff!!! Before we reached the next pavilion his wife proposed that they sit and have lunch so I excused myself but they declined and made me stay with them... they even shared the bento with me... they were so nice!! T.T
I enjoyed the homemade Onigiri very much... ^^
After we finished with our lunch we walked to the "Sun animal pavilion"... there we saw Sloths, Flying foxes, Egyptian Rousettes (bats) and Crocodiles... Sato-san was videotaping while I was sketching...
Next stop was the "Grass-eating animals"... this was amazing... there were so many beautiful animals like Giraffes, Hippos, Llamas, Zebras, Kangaroos, Wallabies and Ostriches... I rather enjoyed the last of the lot... they are such funny creatures!!! The Kangaroos where most impressing though since it was my first time seeing them up close!!!
The "Elephant pavilion" came after... I love Elephants... they are very smart animals and with excellent memory... they were quite friendly, although I remember a small girl crying because of the large animals being so close to her!! :P
The last place I visited was the "Fierce Animal Coliseum"... it was breathtaking to see the Lions, Jaguars, Tigers and Snow Leopards... I stayed almost an hour observing these amazing animals... Sato-san and his wife left me because they wanted to go shop for their grand-children... I stayed till closing time (16:00 in winter season) and then left to pick up my hand-luggage!!!
I reached the hostel around 17:30!!! I was exhausted... thankfully I wasn’t hungry (I usually forget to eat when I am excited) *whistles*
The room I had booked was a single room, since there is such service in Japanese hostels... the room was HUGE with three beds and a BIG flat screen TV... the moment I locked the door, I fell on one of the beds and slept till 19:00...
I opened the TV and flipped through the channels until I found anime... it was D.Gray-man sixth episode... I don’t remember the channel but I watched it... at that moment I didn’t know what I was looking at so I kept keywords so I could look it up once I arrived back to Greece...
That night I stayed inside because I felt so tired... I only went to a convenience store to get something to eat and that was all...
That was my first day in Kobe... I had booked the hostel for three nights but only actually slept the first night!!! O.o
Gosh I am exhausted of writing!!! *sighs* but this was a fun entry... *(^O^)*