Day Two!

Hi!!!

Today we had a guided tour of Kobe and the surrounding area by the wonderfully helpful students from Konan University!

We walked all over the town by our school, Okamoto, and went to the HyakuYen store ($1 Store). Then we bought discount train tickets and took the train into the city. I went to my first shrine in Japan where the students showed us the proper etiquette for prayer.
Then we went to Sannomiya, a gigantic out door mall with an incredible amount of stores, and wandered around for a long time. China Town was next - it was filled with tons of street vendors and Chinese dress shops, just like home (only slightly closer to the real thing :) ).
We had okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza (kind of) made from cabbage, flour, and toppings like pork and gravy) for dinner at Kobe's Harborland, a pretty mall right on the water. I have wanted to try okonomiyaki for a really long time. It was delicious!

Kobe at night in the harbor is ridiculously pretty. It was a perfect temperature too! And the city is SO clean! It was a wonderful day.

I talked to the students in Japanese and English, we switched on and off. It was so funny to hear all the different languages going on - they taught us Kansai-ben (the "dialect" of the Kansai area) and we taught them English phrases like "old school". We had a very fun day and I felt like I made lots of friends.

I am getting a little nervous for tomorrow though. We meet our host families!
Mine seems so nice, I can't wait to meet them, though I am a bit scared. :)

I am putting up pictures right now so you can all see Kobe!

I hope you are all doing well! I love and miss you!

Love,
Christy