Spurred on by the promise of good food, Ets and I went out to meet Patrick and Nobuko in Nagata where I am told sobameshi (fried noodles and rice) is a local specialty. Nagata is also where Tetsujin 28 resides.

Tokyo had their Gundam (which I believe is now dismantled) but Kobe and its 18-meter tall Tetsujin lives on striking an unmistakeably heroic pose.

Before that though, Ets and I went to Sannomiya to wander around Chinatown and to seek out a particular Starbucks. What made this one special is that it is housed in what used to be one of the foreign residences dating back to the late Taisho and early Meiji eras.

The whole two-storey house is one fancy Starbucks. There are even some old furniture and the rest of the interior is probably as accurate as it can be after being Bucksified.

The remaining houses in the area, which is on top of a hill, remain a tourist attraction and still retain a certain charm despite some over-ambitious claims (one cafe nearby advertised an ocean-view. Not entirely false but you had to peer over a hundred rooftops to catch the tiniest glimpse of the ocean).