Kobe and back to Tokyo

After our time in Hiroshima we caught the Shinkansen to Kobe (pic) which was about an hour and a half on the train. We stayed at the Toyoko Inn a business Hotel which had amazingly convenient facilities. Coin laundry, internet access and a free Japanese breakfast. We were going to the destruction museum(actually reconstruction) but sense prevailed and we caught the cable car up to a beautiful garden and found a pretty amazing perfume museum. This had delightful displays of early perfume distillery equipment and antique perfume bottles (see pic) and the opportunity to "smell" fragrances. The gardens were fabulous (see the poppies) and we had a lavender icecream (as you do).
Off to Tokyo then to rejoin Marco and Ruth and it was like coming home. (see pic of the wonderful journalists living room) We are so fortunate to have such dear and welcoming friends. We visited the Sumo museum (really) and the Edo museum and of course Helen was in 7th heaven when we went to the Sony shop in Ginza where they display their new products and prototypes for the future.
The next day Ruth took us to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan for lunch and we were somewhat Starstruck! Quite an experience and we met up with Marco who had been there for a press conference with the EU ambassador. After lunch we went to the Tokyo International Forum building which is an architectual marvel and then we popped along to the Emperor's palace to say hello. Home to a fab tofu salad, souffle and a bottle of NZ pinot noir and Ruths special Tofu cheesecake.!! I am a total convert to silken tofu.
We then watched a DVD about the North Korean soccer team of 1966 who reached the semifinals of the world cup that year (very appropriate for the night before the 2006 cup start and our trip to the Demilitarized Zone tomorrow) and thats us up to date ..