Kobe

The administrators of the JET Programme love hosting conferences. It means they get to book out large luxurious hotels and fill them with hundreds of unpredictable young foreigners. The most recent one I attended was in Kobe, the city of the '95 earthquake fame, at the grandiose Portopia hotel. The name is apparently an amalgam of 'Port' and 'utopia', two words which, I'm sure you'll agree, somehow don't really go together all that well. The occasion was the West Japan JET Programme 2006 Recontracting Conference, a gathering of young internationalists who have decided to sign their lives away to the Japanese government for another year. Nobody really remembers what it was about. There was an opening ceremony, a few flashy buffets, some speeches and a few seminars that felt important at the time. The real memories are from the evenings, when we decended on Sannomia, Kobe's party district. Clubs and bars threw their doors open as wide as possible in anticipation of the influx of people who are generally understood to have a much better alcohol tolerance than their usual clientele. Needless to say, much was consumed and much madness ensued.

Ja-chan and I decided to go for the budjet option of attending the clubs but only buying booze at the much cheaper convenience stores dotted around the district. By the end of the second night, many had cottoned on to the idea and the perplexed locals carefully avoided the worrisome looking little crowds of drunk foreigners that were gathering on the streetcorners. I only saw one person get arrested, but luckily for the organizers, it wasn't a conference participant.

Kobe is much more vibey than Okayama and a lot more chilled than Osaka or Tokyo. Nestled between The mountains and the sea in the Kansai area, it feels more like an overdeveloped holiday resort than a city. Nearly every view includes either greenery or water, which is much better for the soul than the neverending urban vistas of Tokyo. Ja-chan noted that the girls are prettier and less snooty than in Okayama. I think he's right. He was able to strike up several conversations with locals on the street. We watched a fully amplified three piece band (guitar, bass, drums) playing classic covers on the sidewalk while passers by stopped for a little jive. If that happened in Okayama, everyone would probably be arrested!