Please forgive today’s post if it’s incoherent. It’ll get obvious what I did to become incoherent. I’m also deleting a lot of pictures today because they’re repetitious. Like lots of ropeway and cable car pictures that all look alike. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Today I didn’t know what to do, so I figured I’d go to Kobe.

I got there and found the tourist bureau and got the English-language information from them. Then I was gripped by indecision and stood outside the office for a while and started walking back and forth until I decided to just get on the train and go back two stations and take a bus, cable-car, bus, and ropeway to get to Arima Onsen. Here’s the first bus.

Of course, I’m an idiot and I got off the bus too early. It was only about 700m walking but about 50m (165ft) of elevation gain.

So the second part of the trip is the Rokko Cable car.

Yep, it’s two cars attached by a cable. Here’s a picture of the small section of rail where they pass each other.

Here’s the car I rode in the lower station.

And in the upper station.

I guess it’s a good way as any to get up a steep hill.

You only have a short time to transfer to the bus and, of course, I spent too much time getting change and taking these pictures and 

 

Fortunately, I only had to wait twenty minutes. There was more time to connect to the ropeway from the bus so I could go up and try to find the high point on Mt. Rokko. I thought this was the top.

I didn’t stop at any of the attractions atop Mt. Rokko, including a Music Box Museum that had pamphlets back in Hamamatsu at the Musical Instruments museum.

I was told the highest spot was this weird dome.

And I remember all the towers from when I rode my bike up to the top of Mt. Rokko. Twice. I was young and stupid. I did it during the summer and it was hot at the bottom and freezing at the top. I thought this was the top. I think this area is 880m (about 2900ft) above where I started.

I took some more pictures because it looked like it was clearing up.

This is the ropeway.

Actually, I think this is supposed to be the top of Mt. Rokko, where that tower is.

The next three pictures are of the deepest valley in the Mt. Rokko area.

And finally, it drops straight down into the Arima Onsen area. 

Of course the ropeway ends in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately the town of Arima is downhill.

I didn’t even bother going to any shrines or temples.

So there’s two main hot springs where you can just go in and have a soak, KInsen and Ginsen. Kinsen is “ferruginous, sodium chloride, saline, high temperature” while Ginsen has two: “carbon dioxide spring (carbonic acid spring)” and “radioactive spring (radium spring).” Of course indecision hit. I wanted to go to the carbonic acid but avoid the radioactive and finally ended up just going to Kinsen. Turns out Ginsen was closed for the week.

The 42°C (107.6°F) bath wasn’t quite hot enough but the 44°C (111.2°F) was actually painful. Of course I sat in the hotter one for a while. I got out and have been only semi-coherent for the rest of the day.

Here’s all the things I bought at Kinsen. Arima Cider, a towel, a comb, and access to the bath.

The Arima cider was not that sweet and pretty good. Especially after taking hot bath. 

I’ve actually never been to Arima and it was a nice traditional hot spring town that’s been in existence since the 500’s or so. Yeah, three digits.

You wouldn’t think cars would use this street.

I missed lunch again, and about 3:30 I had a matcha soft ice cream cone. Lots of guys were drinking beer or at a stand-up bar having beer or sake, but I figured that would just knock me out.

I took the bus straight back to Umeda station. It was a bit more expensive, but I didn’t have to change buses or trains and I knew even if I fell asleep I’d get woken up when we arrived back at Umeda.

This is a picture near the bus stop and I knew this would be a million dollar picture after the fall colors change.

On the way back I saw this Friendly and I think this is one where I went on a date in the past with my old fiancée.

I went out to find dinner and I figured I’d try the new South Station building (the Daimaru) and almost went to the Mexican restaurant, Chico’s and Charlie’s. We used to go all the time back when I lived in Japan. I ended up going back to the Yodobashi Camera and the all-you-can-eat bread place, because nobody was lining up anywhere in the South Station building but they were at “Baqet”.

So that’s it for today. I wonder what I’ll do tomorrow.