Weekend trip to Kobe

This past weekend I went to Kobe to visit some family and friends! I always go to Kobe via shinkansen (bullet train), but this time I took an airplane there, and took the night bus back. Both firsts!!! I have never even been to Haneda airport, where a good bulk of the domestic flights leave from in Tokyo. My cousin works there at the event place, but I was in a rush to get on my flight so I couldn't drop by to say hello.

Anyway, Kobe was a nice, relaxing weekend. I really didn't do much at all. I basically just hung out with family for two days and then hung out with my friend who lives out there for a day at her house. I finally got to eat yakiniku (Japanese version of Korean BBQ) with my family so I was VERY satisfied!!!! We also went to the Masuda (mom's maiden name) graveyard to pay respects which was really nice. In Japan, when you go visit your ancestor's graveyard, you clean the area, replace the flowers, clean the tomb stone thingy, and burn incense. The Masuda graveyard is up in the mountains (or what Gary would call hills) of Kobe. The round thingy with the design on it is the Masuda family crest.

My friend in Kobe just got married a little while ago and had a baby 3 weeks ago!! SO precious!! Her name is Sakina (咲菜)! Very cute kanji right? :-) She was born on January 14th, and is my first friend baby! She was very well behaved when I was there and just slept the day away. Although, my friend was pretty scared about what she would do at night since she was sleeping so soundly during the day, haha. She has a lot of hair for a little girl her age, and it looks like she has a little mohawk!

So the weird, coincidental thing about both my friend and my aunt and uncle who live in Kobe is that both families have the exact same type of dog. Back in high school when I was in Kobe visiting, my aunt took me to Ashiya train station to meet up with my friend. My aunt had glanced at my friend's home address and said that she must live close, but she wasn't sure exactly where she lived. I then met up with my friend and I slept over at her house that night. That was the first time I realized that they both had the same dog. So I went back to my aunt and uncle's house, and told them that my friend's family had the same dog. I then realized that my friend's house was on the way to Ashiya train station from my aunt and uncle's house! My aunt and uncle then realized that they had talked to my friend's dad before when they were both walking their dogs one morning!! Crazy coincidences right???

Anyway, here is a picture of Ken-Ken, my friend's dog. He is a grandpa now, at age 13. He is the sweetest dog ever though :-)

Here is a pic of my aunt and uncle's dog, Paula. She looks funny here because she is cold and is wearing a head scarf lol She looks like an old lady! In fact, she is an old lady, at age 11 :-)

Although Kobe was fun, I oddly missed Tokyo. I always thought that Kobe was the perfect size city because it's not too large but not small either. Now that I have had a taste of big city life, it's actually started to grow on me :-) Weird!