Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

11/28/2004, Trip to Kobe with Jeremy and Akemi, ramen shop with very cool bathroom

My friend Jeremy arrived from Gunma prefecture (state) in the morning.  Jeremy and I were classmates at the University of Washington in Seattle.  We studied both computer science and Japanese together.  He currently works for Nova, a commercial English conversation training company.  He lives in Gunma prefecture (state), which is about an hour and a half north of Tokyo, near where the earthquakes were.

Jeremy, Akemi, and I went out for breakfast at my favorite neighborhood cafe.

After breakfast, we all went to Kobe for a little sightseeing.

We stopped in a little bakery where I picked up this little focaccia-like (sp?) breakd thing with asparagus, cheese, and bacon.  It was surprisingly good.

After that, we went down to Meriken Park, near the water.  Here's Jeremy.

Akemi had to leave early.  Jeremy and I did more sightseeing with the rest of the day.

We ran across this peculiar gathering of people.  These young ladies, dressed in cute, skimpy bunny outfits were out for more than just looks.

It was part of a protest against fur coats.  The girls in front were to make people look.

The people in back were to make people think.  They carried the nastiest signs with pictures of bloody, skinless rabbits.

For dinner, we went looking for a ramen shop I am particularly fond of.  I had only been there once before, so we walked around for an hour and a half before we finally found the place.  It has a wonderful atmosphere and delicious ramen with pork or chicken.  Absolutely delicious.One of my favorite things about this ramen shop is the bathroom, which is adorned with mirrors on every wall and various decorations and art work.  Like the rest of the restaurant, everything in the bathroom is something special.  I took lots of pictures, mainly because it's hard to photograph a tiny room full of mirrors, especially when you are inside that tiny room full of mirrors with a relatively cheap digital camera.

The toilet.  Notice a mirror on both sides, behind the toilet, and an angled mirror above the toilet.  When you sit down, that mirror in combination with the mirror in front of you gives you a rather disturbing view of your back side.  Basically, when you look forward, you see a view straight down the crack of your bum.  If you think this description is a little gross, you out to try sitting down in this bathroom.  It's really creepy.

The toilet.

The sink.  It is painted into a work of art.

The toilet brush.  It appears to be made of sterling silver.

Here I am sitting on the toilet.  Notice the many reflections of myself as I sit there.  When actually sitting there, I counted at least 10 views of myself in all of these mirrors.  I know this is a little crude.  Sorry if you're offended.

A poster on the well.  Notice the spoons in the background.  They take up an entire wall.

The spoon wall.

In an effort to really capture what it's like to be in this room, I took a couple movies.  Here's the first. (10.1 MB)

And here's the second. (10.1 MB)

Actually, I took about 15 photos and 2 movies in this bathroom.  These were my favorites.

After dinner (and my 20 minute photo session in the bathroom), we walked around the Motomachi neighborhood of Kobe for a while.

Here's a nice sign in Motomachi.

<Previous     -     Index     -     Next>