Kinosaki - Day 2 ...

Alright, let's finish this Kinosaki trip.

The second day of the Kinosaki trip only had two stops. Two very commercial stops. The first was Kinosaki Marine World and the second was this new huge outlet mall just outside of Kobe. Both of which were rather appealing to me. :)

Kinosaki Marine World was a lot of fun. Daniel & I were a little skeptical at first, especially considering that the first thing we saw was a giant salamander, but things quickly perked up when we realized there were all sorts of 'experiences' available, including a 'dolphin experience', a 'penguin experience', a 'fishing experience' and some sort of 'seal experience'. Who doesn't love experiences?

The most exciting part was the penguins. I love penguins a lot. I spent a lot of time hanging out with them at Marine World.

Adorable. I don't care if you don't like animals - it's adorable. :)

And then next thing we know, they were walking all over the place. Daniel came this close ---- to stepping on one & I was so excited I just wanted to hug one. And then put it in my bag and bring it back to my apartment.

They're surprisingly quick ... see?:

Emi, Hiroyuki, Hiroko, Eri & Kumi:
Daniel and I are complete nerds, but we make each other laugh. Here's the proof:

After Survivor: Penguin, it was time to go fishing. Naoko, Daniel, Hiroyuki & I decided to rent some poles and try our luck at catching a couple.

The bait ... not exactly worms, but whatever:

Daniel, myself & Naoko, baiting up and making bets on who was going to catch the first fish.

Hiroyuki is the professional, so I thought it would for sure be him.

Hiroyuki goes fishing like my grandpa ... ALL THE TIME.

And he was the first one out. ha.

Tada! There really are fish in the bucket:

See? :)

It was kind of hard not to catch a fish in this water:
And when you were finished you took your fish up to the counter where the cut the heads off, pulled all of the guts out and fried them up for lunch. Sounds good huh?
All of our fish ... we caught a lot. Collectively :)

And then we found a perfect spot to snack ... Isn't it beautiful?

Who wouldn't want to eat right here?

Hiroyuki, Naoko, me & Daniel ... enjoying our catch.

Naoko & I

We had one last traditional Japanese lunch before heading to Kobe to do a little shopping.

I blamed our fish fry for not eating all of my lunch. :)

We spend the next leg of the race, I mean portion of the trip shopping at the biggest outlet mall I've been to in Japan. There were so many stores and the layout was like a real American mall. I made my way to my favorites, The Gap, Coach, Kate Spade, Nike ... you know, all the good ones.

We all loaded the bus for the last time and started the two plus hour trek back to Okayama. I was thankful for my iPod and a small pillow. I slept the entire way.

much love

-tara-

xx