Everything Japan Revival!

Hello everyone,

It's been about 8 months without any updates from my hiatus. I'm going to have this blog back and running around mid-February! Keep a look out for new posts.

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Kobe Beef

Kobe Beef is a prized Japanese delicacy and probably the most widely-known regional specialty food in Japan. It is one of several breeds of Wagyu, or Japanese cattle, which are bred throughout the country and often associated with the area where they are raised. While Kobe Beef is probably the best known type of wagyu outside of Japan, there are many other breeds, such as Matsuzaka and Yonezawa Beef, that are equally or even more famous among Japanese gourmets.

Kobe Beef is distinguished as a tender, flavorful meat that is well marbled with fat. It is produced from pedigreed Tajima breed cattle which were born and slaughtered in Hyogo Prefecture. Despite popular rumor, the cows are not usually fed beer or massaged with sake. Once slaughtered the meat must pass a series of requirements and only the highest grades of meat with exceptionally high levels of fat marbling earn the Kobe Beef label, which is a strictly-guarded trademark.

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Meriken Park

Meriken Park is a nice waterfront park in Kobe's port area. Built on an outcropping of reclaimed land, the park is covered in grassy lawn and open courtyards dotted with a collection of modern art installations and fountains. It is home to some of the city's more iconic contemporary architecture such as the red Kobe Port Tower and the Kobe Maritime Museum.

The park was devastated by the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, but has now become a popular spot for locals and tourists again. A small memorial in the park commemorates the many victims who were killed in the port during the earthquake. A short section of damaged waterfront has been left unrepaired as a reminder of the earthquake's tremendous destructive power.

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Kobe Luminarie (神戸ルミナリエ)

Kobe Luminarie (神戸ルミナリエ) is a light festival held in Kobe, Japan, every December since 1995 to commemorate the Great Hanshin earthquake of that year. The lights were donated by the Italian Government and the installation itself is produced by Valerio Festi and Hirokazu Imaoka. Over 200,000 individually hand painted lights are lit each year with electricity generated from biomass in order to stay environmentally friendly.

Lights are kept up for about two weeks and turned on for a few hours each evening. Major streets in the vicinity are closed to auto traffic during these hours to allow pedestrians to fill the streets and enjoy the lights. It is viewed by about three to five million people each year

Photo:

"Kobe Luminarie 2011 01sds" by 663highland - 663highland. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kobe_Luminarie_2011_01sds.jpg#/media/File:Kobe_Luminarie_2011_01sds.jpg

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Arima Onsen (有馬温泉)

Arima Onsen (有馬温泉) is a famous hot spring town within the city limits of Kobe, but on the opposite side of Mount Rokko from the city center. The town lies in a natural mountain setting, yet is close enough for Kobe and Osaka residents as an easy and popular day trip or weekend getaway.

Although Arima Onsen has a modern look today and is pretty built up, one can still find several narrow lanes and wooden buildings when strolling around the center of town. Due to its compact size, the small town can be explored entirely on foot, and there are several hot spring sources, nice temples and shrines and a small hot spring museum (200 yen) to be discovered.

With a history of over one thousand years, Arima Onsen is considered one of Japan's oldest hot spring resorts and has often stood at or near the top of onsen rankings for Western Japan. The town has two types of hot spring waters which spring up at various sources around town: the Kinsen ("gold water") is colored brown with iron deposits and is said to be good for skin ailments and muscle pain, while the clear Ginsen ("silver water") contains radium and carbonate and is said to cure various muscle and joint ailments.

Visitors to Arima Onsen can enjoy hot spring bathing at two public bath houses or at the town's many ryokan. Several ryokan open their baths also to non-staying visitors during the day. The admission fee for a daytrip visit to a bath typically ranges between 500 and 2500 yen.

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Photos:

"Arima Onsen Gosho-bessho02s5s4272" by 663highland - 663highland. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arima_Onsen_Gosho-bessho02s5s4272.jpg#/media/File:Arima_Onsen_Gosho-bessho02s5s4272.jpg

"Taiko-no-yudonokan01s3872" by 663highland - 663highland. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taiko-no-yudonokan01s3872.jpg#/media/File:Taiko-no-yudonokan01s3872.jpg

"Arima Onsen Yumotozaka01s3200" by 663highland - 663highland. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arima_Onsen_Yumotozaka01s3200.jpg#/media/File:Arima_Onsen_Yumotozaka01s3200.jpg

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