It’s about 10:45AM here in Kobe. We’re having a leisurely morning with very little planned before meeting our friends at 2:00.
Japan got hit by a tropical storm yesterday. I say “Japan” as in “the whole country” because the storm did pretty much go right across most of the country. Kobe itself made national news because it received over 50mm of rain between 1:30 and 2:30PM. We were out in the shopping district for most of the day, but fortunately we were in one of the covered streets during the worst of the storm. We read in the paper today that there were a few injuries–mostly folks being blown right off their feet. Sadly, an elderly man was crushed to death when a warehouse next to his home collapsed. We’re fine, of course, but the walk back to the hotel was very windy.
We spent most of yesterday in those covered shopping streets. The sheer number and density of retail stores in shopping districts in Japan is somewhat staggering. Tracie ended up with several new blouses in various shades of a peach color that seems to be popular this season but I managed to avoid temptation altogether, despite lingering at the watch counters of one of the department stores.
Here are a few snapshots of the shopping area. I’ve got a few photos from Ginza that I need to post also but I’m not sure when I’ll get to those. I am, after all, on vacation.
