31 October 2025
I am glad it is raining today
Tokyo to Kobe on the bullet train
Now I am in Kobe. A place I have stayed once before, and visited a couple of times. It is pouring with rain, however it is supposed to stop at about midnight, and be back to sunshine tomorrow, so perfectly timed rain.
When I left Tokyo, it was not raining, the train was silent, we went past Fuji and I could see it, soon after, it started to rain.
Even though we were inside a very insulated train carriage, the Japanese people all started coughing and sneezing minutes after the rain started. Including the pathetic cough women do where it is a constant tiny cough about a second apart. I swear it is an ingrained involuntary response in Japanese people to do this. People will think I am just being racist, but I have no one to talk to and nothing to do other than observe others, and the coughs and sneezes per minute increased 10 fold the minute it started to rain outside the train.
Anyway, now I am staying at a Dormy Inn, located in Kobe Chinatown. A lot of the surrounds are undercover so that will be useful this evening.
My early morning walk took me back past the Imperial Palace to check on the cleanliness of the moat.
I can confirm that it is a moat.
Here is my train. It is the same as all the trains. It was not even full which was a bit surprising because it is a long weekend in Japan.
Now for my hotel. I seem to be setting a new expectation of three boring hotel pictures per hotel. This one does not have 2 desks, but it does have the weird double entry setup, which seems like a massive waste of space. In the entry the bathroom is on the left, but the wash basin in on the right, in the entry.
Inside the room proper, and the desk area is of very questionable ergonomics. A whole heap of crap in the only work area, and the power points are in a stupid location.
No bath here. Last room had a bath. I declare Ochanomizu Sotetsu Fresa hotel with it's 2 desks to be better than Kobe Dormy Inn.