We don't arrive until 2:30pm, and I've gotten into the routine of a late arrival... a little breakfast, a little lunch before dashing off the ship for our next adventure! A quick 10 minute shuttle bus ride from the ship to the shopping center in town, Kobe Motomachi. Absolutely fantastic! Hundreds of shops and a department store or two; Kimono stores with beautiful fabric, clothing stores, coffee houses, bakeries, candy stores, shoe stores, jewelry stores, sushi restaurants, Kobe beef restaurants, tea rooms. It was filled with Japanese families enjoying a leisurely stroll on a Sunday afternoon. I have discovered that American products and styles are sought after and of course are sold at a premium. So you have to hunt for Japanese products. There are lots of foodstuffs, but not knowing what the majority are, I'm not about to purchase any and take them home... one thing I found was a lovely pair of Akoya pearl earrings, nothing extravagant, but very nice after initially seeing them in a shop called GSTV. They list two prices in official Duty Free shops the lower of the two being the duty free cost and all that's required to obtain the lower price is your passport. Well, once we decided to purchase the earrings, the paperwork started! Oh, first, tea was served then the paperwork started. First the credit card of course, then a form in triplicate for the duty free status that included the price, item, item number, store, address, my passport number, the ship information, when I entered Japan, when I was leaving, home address and signature! But wait, there's more! Then the earrings had to be wrapped, a copy the the Duty Free form had to be scotch taped into my passport, then officially stamped, twice! And, 25 minutes later we were out the door and making our way back to the shuttle stop.
Lovely dinner at Prime 7, the voyager's specialty restaurant with Foie Gras and lobster tails... two as a matter of fact! Yum!
With only a few days remaining in the cruise, our thoughts are turning toward home, I spent time starting to pack this afternoon. Boo! I'm almost ready to be home, but I will certainly miss the service. I'll have to go back to making my own bed, cooking meals, and forgoing the nightly champagne and in cabin Single Malt. Drat. The journey back to reality is on the horizon. A couple of days in Tokyo will be another adventure and staying at the Peninsula will soften the blow, but mentally we've started home.
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