Whirlwind In A Mama's Head

Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness. This quote by Frank Gehry  surely applies to the beautiful Rokko Shidare Observatory. Perched at the top of  Mt. Rokko, the unusual structure is a dome without any supporting beams inside. That means, all the pieces used to create that shape are self-supporting.  Of course, the design made a very instagrammable backdrop and is particularly beautiful around sunset. From around the structure you can see the surrounding cities in the distance. When it gets dark enough, lights from the houses twinkle as if waving hello. There was a cafe and souvenir shop near the observatory for those shielding from the cold. From there we backtrack our transportation modes all the way to the hotel again. I can't remember what we had for dinner that day but we brought home some gyozas and cakes f

Did you know that it doesn't usually snow in early December in Kobe area? Not even in the mountain! Don't get me wrong, it was super cold out and we experienced it first hand on the day we went to Kobe from Kyoto. With a box of the famous Mister Donuts that had Pokemon theme on their products at that time in hand, we checked out of our hotel in Kyoto after a 2-night stay there and took the train to Kobe. The train was quite full, so we stood for most of the trip. Fortunately it didn't take too long. Good manner signs on the train. It was still around 10 am when we arrived at the B Kobe, the hotel that we booked for our 3 nights there. We weren't able to check in, but they let us leave our luggage there after we changed into our winter gear. We were planning to go to the mountain that afternoon after all.  As planned in the itinerary, I walked to the Hanshin Sannomiya Station to get our Rokkosan Tourist Pass, while I asked my sister to go ahe