Deep In Nada-ku
Today was a local day – a day dedicated to visiting the hood. Where exactly is our hood? Our hood spreads from HAT Kobe to Rokkomichi. Theoretically it should encompass and Sannomiya but around Sannomiya there is too big clustering of gaijins so we rather keep away from there (“we wish no trouble here” :)). The trip started from our local gallery. I don’t know its name but it starts from Oji Zoo Hankyu station direction Osaka and continues for around half a kilometer. If you really like local Japanese shopping galleries (as we do) this is definetly the place to go. Here are a few photos from it.
The second image is from a second hand shop at the end of the gallery (we often buy small stuff from there). There are several more of this kind toward the end.
The following photos are from the end of the gallery:
Pretty local isn’t it? Actually the secret is that from here starts (or ends – depends of the point of view) an intricate networks of ultra-local galleries. You have all kind of shops there but mainly fish, meat and pickle shops. We couldn’t make in it the “labyrinth” this time though as we have been “obliged” to go further to the Oishi Hanshin station supermarket to watch the pet section (it seems every big Japanese supermarket must have one such section). In the supermarket I met my future pet which you can see on the picture bellow but unfortunately I haven’t been granted permission to buy it within the next 2 and a half years (yes, there are higher instances than me when it comes to planning my leisure time):
Additionally in the pet section I have been able to take pictures of several bizzare and most probably not known to the modern science species like this shark like creature:
Well enough for pets (for now). Our main destination was a small pickles/sake museum not far away from Shinzaike Hanshin station (5 – 10 min walk, very close to route 43 – I can upload the precise coordinates if somebody shows interest). Actually it is much more than a museum. It is a small cluster of several building and in the museum building itself you can find a nice saloon (19 century furniture) where you can order a set of excellent sake, a bar and a tea room. The other buildings are a restaurant and a relatively big pickles (and sake) shop. The museum and the shop are connected through traditional japanese garden.
Unfortunately when we finally reached the museum it was already closed (closing time 5 p.m.) so we spend most of the time in the pickle shop. At least here are the photos from outside of the museum:
Here are and the photos from the pickles/sake shop. By the way you can try almost all of the pickles (and some of the sake) they sell. My favorite are nuts covered in wasabi (not exactly pickles per se). Actually it is not so awfull as it may sound. I guarantee that if you survive the first three seconds you will ask for more.
And finally I would ilke to finish this post with few nice sunset images from Shinzaike Hanshin station. I swear there is no photoshop touch here. Just my old, good iPhone camera:
The first:
The second:
And the last:
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