Fear and Loathing in Kobe

January 18, 2022

Fear and Loathing in Kobe

I visited Kobe on a whim, and went home with a life lesson.

I had just come from Asago in Hyogo to see the famous Takeda Castle ruins and was slowly making my way to Tottori to see its sand dunes. I don't know exactly what served as the trigger, but then it dawned on me that I'll be coming back to the Philippines in a month or so but I still haven't tasted Kobe beef. And so while on the train, I hurriedly booked a bed in a capsule hotel---another thing I wanted to cross off my bucket list---and got off Kobe Sannomiya station.

As this was all happening without any prior plan at all, I had really not much idea where to go. I found myself staring at Google maps but still failing to find exactly where this hotel was. By the third time I've gone up and down the street where it was supposed to be, I was already frustrated and tired as I'd just climbed up a mountain that morning. Desperate to get to my hotel, I became resigned to the fact that I would have to do that one thing I dread the most when traveling: ask people for directions.

I looked around and the only people I saw were these burly two men who looked like they stepped right out of a yakuza movie---plucked eye brows and facial hair, flashy jewelry and dark suits in a warm summer afternoon, and hairstyles you'd never see a respectable salaryman sport.

Yeah, I'm not going near them, I thought. I've seen far too many animes and Japanese dramas to know that talking to gangsters only leads to no good.

So I walked past them in search of friendlier faces.

I hadn't gone far when I saw this teenage boy walking towards me. I didn't know if he spoke any English but he had a decidedly less-scary face than the yakuza members (they can't be anything but yakuza, right?) I just walked past, so I decided he's the right person to bother for directions.

I asked the kid if he knew English. He did. Perfect. I then asked if he know where this hotel was. He looked a bit confused so I handed him my phone so he could see the hotel name and address for himself. That didn't seem to be of any help as he looked as unsure as before.

Then he asked me to follow him. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but seeing that he was still holding my phone, I had no other choice but to follow him---straight to where the two yakuzas were standing.

I didn't quite know what to do. Three minutes earlier I was mercilessly judging these two, thinking they surely have cut someone's fingers off at least twice, then there I was, standing within their striking distance, with one of them holding my phone. Before I could imagine myself being dragged to an empty warehouse somewhere, one of the men asked (in English, no less) if this was the capsule hotel with the onsen. I said it was, so they pointed to the general direction of the hotel and where I should make a right turn. After that, they both gave me these really genuine and friendly smiles. I smiled back, did that awkward bow many foreigners in Japan make while thanking the three of them, and then walked towards where the hotel was, feeling awful for judging the two men.