Kobe, Japan

I felt sick and tired - literally! I had absolutely no energy to do much as we sailed into Kobe. Because we have been there twice before George was happy to keep me company on our first day and we stayed on board. I had put myself on to anti biotics because I recognised the symptome of a chest infection which accelerates my asthma and gives me a gag inducing cough. I have had this before only on board the ship. On the first voyage three times and on the last only once...hopefully the same on this one.

The second day George was going on a hiking trip and I feeling much, much better, joined Brenda, Terry and Alfred on an exploration to find a particular Art Gallery. We left the ship and close by boarded the Port Liner, a fast train into town. We then collaborated on getting subway tickets from computer like machines and boarded the subway to the nearest station to the gallery. Once we were settled we noticed that it really picked up speed and sped through a couple of stations...oops, this was, we realised, the Speedy Express to Osaka! When it finally came to a halt we rushed off and caught the next slow train back to the correct subway station feeling like complete nits.

We weaked a short distance to the gallery, an impressive building built of massive concrete blocks. The architecture reminded me somewhat of Trent University in Peterborough. Looking up at its grey walls I suddenly thought 'What if there was an earthquake right this minute? This wall would fall on us and...well we'd be pancakes!' These thoughts of earthquakes and tsunamis were common to many of us I discovered. How could it not be so? We had a discussion as to whether the ship would make for open sea when the tsunami warning sounded and, if so, what happened to us?! Even on the ship as I stood on our balcony looking out to the beautiful skylines of Kobe and Yokohama I could see in my minds eye the buldings crumbling as I looked. There are grave disadvantages to having a vivid imagination.

We decided to have quick lunch prior to walking round the gallery so we found a cafeteria and sat outside in the sunshine eating sandwiches. Then with some difficulty we found, after riding up and down a couple of times in an elevator which would only go to Floor 3. some installation art spread through three rooms. The first was an artistic line up of rifles, looking threatening and ominous, the second had taken the rifles apart and concentrated on certain parts of them strewn round the room and the third depicted the melting of metal and other substances after the dropping of the A bomb...we presumed. The whole thing had power, the power to disturb greatly...and the power to depress.

We looked for something more cheerful and uplifting only to discover that out of three galleries, two were closed and we had seen the only one open to the public. As we had paid about $20.00 worth of Yen to enter we were a little, to say the least, disappointed!

Apart from an excellent coffee at Starbucks our day had been great fun certainly but unproductive and uninspiring! However strolling around Kobe is always a lovely reminder of how cities should be. People smile and are helpful, children are delightfully attractive and appealing: there are lovely walks and none of the noisy stress of other cities in India, China or North America. The Japanese seem to be a relatively quiet people, their culture demanding discipline and restraint. i haven't checked the suicide rate....might be interesting.