Again with the Kobe

Our Nara trip was more accurately our Kobe trip. We had driven down to Akashi [shudder!] with Piotr, then we headed on to Nara while he was off to Osaka. Since most of Nara closes kinda early, we returned to Kobe, did a bit of shopping and attempted to get some tasty Italian food.

Attempted because our Kobe curse popped up. We had been to the restaurant before, but didn't have the name or the number. Ergo, no reservations were made. When we walked in, the chef asked if we had reservations. "No, sorry we don't. Can you fit us in?" "NO. No reservations, no room." Ok. Disappointed, and a bit annoyed with his brusqueness, we start to leave when a waiter catches us, tells us he'll check to see if he can fit us in. He talks to the Chef, who says loudly "The Americans?", "Yes, the Americans.", "NO." The waiter politely says he's really sorry, I tell him it's ok, I grab some business cards so we can make reservations next time.

Now, this little episode really deflated us. Sure, I can understand that not having reservation might be inconvenient, but there was no foul, right? I mean, we didn't sit around, didn't demand a seat, didn't even take 5 minutes of their time. Maybe the chef was having a bad day. And I want to know how he pegged us as Americans. I need to learn to camoflage as Canadian- maybe next time we'll get dinner.

Anyhow, we found a great Chinese restaurant, went to the hotel where we actually slept on a bed, and slept some 10 hours. The next day we met back up with Piotr, ate some fruit on a stick [best thing ever], and headed to that glorious place known as Costco. Loaded up, ate some Costco dogs, and headed home.