In Kobe, we visited the maritime museum and the carpentry museum, the latter of which had a special exhibit on sumitsubo, the Japanese equivalent of a chalk line tool. They can be quite elaborate and elegantly decorated, or very compact and functional. Of particular interest to Anjin-san were the different methods of joinery; there were large examples on display, with smaller puzzle-sized versions to tinker with.
The Maritime Museum had plenty of ship models and a history maritime activity in Japan; being in Kobe, it focused more on the 19th century and later, in particular Japanese innovations once the country opened up to the West.
There was also an entire wing about Kawasaki, which included a flight simulator. Anjin-san had to partake.
We also ascended via ropeway the Nunobiki herb garden. Situated high on a mountain overlooking the city and the bay, if we’d had more time we might have hiked up or down, but as it was our last item we arrived just in time to go up and return before closing.
It was worthwhile. The views from the garden as well as the ropeway are spectacular.
In Osaka, I went on a bit of an otaku quest looking for toys from anime I watched when I was a child…which is rare. I settled for a model of IQ-9, the cute astro-navigator robot from Space Battleship Yamato, and some Ranma notebooks. We also took in a cat cafe.
Our main attractions in Osaka were the castle grounds and seeing family friend Taichi Tamura. Same club as last year, but a different lineup: a female singer and a trumpeter, whom we were reassured was kind of a big deal in Japan. There were several standards sung in English, some other songs in Japanese; we had a bit of time to catch up and say hello to Tamu but had to leave after the second set.
We sent our luggage ahead to Tokyo and spent a final night in our Kyoto ryokan. The next morning, we boarded a bullet train for Tokyo.