Earlier in the day we met up with Joe and Tiff and Tiff's family who was visiting. We went to a Sake brewery and unfortunately the tour was closed because of the holiday but we still got to do some tasting. I made a mental note for us to go back again sometime and take the tour.
We then wandered around Harborland, the Earthquake Memorial at the port, Nankinmach (Chinatown) and Sannomiya shopping. The Eckbergs and Sellners headed home around dinnertime and Mark and I went to the New Munchen Club which is a German style microbrew bar. We didn't think we would make it to midnight after walking around all day in the cold but after a few beers we were going strong again. It was great to have a weiss beer and a dark Newcastle-like beer for once!
We then decided to hit up another bar called the Hub for a few more drinks before midnight. Our friend Akiko joined us there before we went out to join the crowd waiting for the countdown outside Ikuta Shrine. Ikuta road leading up to Ikuta shrine is kind of like Times Square on NYE only in Kobe. At midnight people get let into the shrine to make a wish, listen to all the taiko drummers and grab some good street vendor food.
It was a blast! There were a ton of people but it was really organized, they let us in in waves and so there wasn't a mad rush. I had Japanese fried chicken, Mark got a Gyro and Akiko had takoyaki...Ok - I had 2 large things of fried chicken which Mark enjoyed giving me crap about, but he did help me finish them!
Hope you all had a great New Years!
Here are a couple more pics from the night.
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