Discover as much as possible with my 7-days Japan Railpass – that’s my number one target of the week. For this reason I did not head directly to Kyoto from Hiroshima but sneaked in two stopovers in Miyajima and Kobe.

Miya-what you will probably ask. Miyajima is a pretty small island just a 20 minutes train ride away from Hiroshima. As stated in my Lonely Planet iBooks edition it was voted for on the best three views in Japan. Miyajima be prepared – I’m coming.

Of course I a heading there during Golden Week – the main traveller week in Japan and Taiwan. So how was? Well, if you just ignore the enormous tourist masses Miyajima is a pretty cute island – turquoise water, nice tiny beach, loose dears running around and besides the Itsukushima-jinja (the orange gate at the picture) you can wander around a former samurai-quarter. What an amazing morning trip.

Afterwards I am heading to Kobe for one day – honestly – it’s more than enough for this city. For any reason I had a completely different idea of Kobe in my mind – just… more green meadows, more cows and stuff like this. Instead I am facing a megacity with 1.5 million Japanese running around.

It seems to me that Kobe is still in search of it’s own identity. At the harbour front I am saluted by the obviously compulsory German beer festival (0.5 liters for „just“ 12€ – the official Octoberfest must be a big bargain for the Japanese). Besides an Elvis statue, a steel-giraffe and a Spanish station (why the hell you need an „Estacion de Kobe“ in Japan???) the city also offers a submarine, a lighthouse, a skytree in Singapore style, a big wheel and further more things to it’s tourist. Honestly, I would never have expected to find any of these in a Japanese city. Well, let them do as they like…

Talking about things I like – I like – no, sorry – I LOVE Kobe beef! As I did not go for the pretty overpriced beer before I indulge myself with a 80 g snack at the Kobe snach bar (by the way located in China town). OMG – this is amazing! I do not even think about chewing J After the pretty fat chicken in China an the fish weeks at the Philippines I definitively miss proper beef and immediately order some roulades at my grand mother for my stopover at home.

Let’s see which culinary highlights are waiting form e at my next stop – Kyoto.