After a few days in Tokyo, we headed south to Kobe to visit our good friends Trish and Mike Injaychock and their adorable kiddos. We arrived to find Trish fully outfitted in a yukata, a summer kimono. There was a festival on Rokko Island that evening and she and the kids were getting all decked out in Japanese attire for it. It was awesome–my tall, red-headed American friend making a life with her family in Japan and even wearing a kimono!
As mentioned in an earlier post, by the time we arrived in Kobe, we were pretty worn out. We’d had two extremely early mornings back to back–the first to get to the airport in Hong Kong for our flight to Tokyo and the second to get up in time for the tuna auction–and combining that with John’s stomach bug, we were beat. 
So we showed up in Kobe on a Saturday afternoon feeling pretty bedraggled, and then Trish showed us into their beautiful, you-could-be-in-America apartment and right away we felt ourselves start to relax. We’d originally had big plans for day trips while we were in Kobe–we’d go to Kyoto and Nara and Osaka and Hiroshima and Miyajima and on and on and on–but once we got to Kobe, we were so happy to be there and so happy to have the chance to slow down and relax that in the end we only took one brief overnight to Hiroshima and Miyajima. More on that to come in the next post. What made that so great was that we got to spend a lot more time with the Injays that way, just seeing what their expat life is like and how they’ve adapted to living in Japan with two little kiddos. As we recuperated at the Injays’ place, we laughed that our time with them was refreshing and uplifting, which is the slogan on Japanese cans of Coca-Cola. (By the way, Japanese Coke is the best we’ve ever tasted–I don’t know what they put in it, but it just tastes way better than American Coke or even Coke we’ve had in other countries where–like in Japan–they make it with real sugar instead of corn syrup. We’d like to start a business importing Japanese Coke–we think if Americans could taste what they’re missing out on, there might be a revolt!)
It truly was refreshing and uplifting being with the Injays–it was a break we sorely needed and we greatly appreciated it. And getting off the tourist trail in Kobe was fun–it felt like we got much more of a chance to see what daily life is like in Japan, for both the Japanese and for expats. Here’s a picture of us on our first night with Trish and Mike, when they took us to a tiny, hidden restaurant for a delicious Kobe beef teppanyaki dinner (photo courtesy of Trish!). Thanks again to the Injays for showing us a fantastic, restful, relaxing, and fun time in Kobe!!