Kobe Luminarie

On Saturday we went to the “Kobe Luminarie” with some friends. The KL is a huge light festival held downtown. The festival is held every December. Its purpose is to commemorate the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Each light in the display is hand painted and they were donated by the Italian government as a way to lift the spirits of the Japanese people after the earthquake. The lights are only up for a couple weeks in December and are only turned on a couple hours each day.

A little about the earthquake (I will write more about it in January). It struck Japan on January 17th 1995 and destroyed a good part of the city. Over 6,400 people lost their lives. It crazy to think that just 13 years ago many of the parts of the city we now visit for dinner and shopping was once in ruins. This was the worst earthquake in Japan since 1923 and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "costliest natural disaster to befall any one country."

I don’t know exactly how many people were there at the light festival – but it is safe to say many thousands. According to the website, last several hundred thousand people visited on one Saturday night. The roads were closed and we had to walk 1-2 miles to get to the actual display. The entire walk was wall to wall people. One of the things that we noticed was how quiet and orderly the entire process was. People were talking softly, the line was moving quickly, etc. I think if we did this same thing back home with several hundred thousand of our closest friends the line would be a little more “animated”.
The actual display was worth the wait. It reminded me a little of Freemont Street in Las Vegas except without the sound effect and “flash”. This was a little a little more artsy and respectful.

After the display we went with our friends to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Another awesome meal. After a couple hours out in the cold the spicy food hit the spot.

Upcoming R&R

We now have our first trip outside of Japan planned. We are going to Thailand in early February (by then all the civil unrest should have calmed down!!). We picked a resort in Phuket. It's on the Southwest coast of the island on an 850 meter beach in Kata Noi bay. It's looks like a nice secluded area. Warning to all travelers expecting a nice relaxing trip to Thailand in February - there will be a very active 1 year old coming your way.

The trip is planned for 6 days. We don't really know what we will do while we are there - but hopefully it involves a whole lot of nothing. Tracy's dream vacation includes a beach, a book, and a fruity drink. The beaches in Thailand are beautiful so I don't think meeting those requirements will be a problem. I am just not sure how the little guy fits in!

This is a picture of the beach.