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The Alien Trip Vol.02 Part 2 Official DIGGER Kana Yukawa and Kiara from Italy share their travel adventures at Okamoto Shopping Arcade in Higashi Nada.

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岡本商店街

Your navigator for this alien trip is the official DIGGER Kana Yukawa who just returned from Spain. I hope you enjoy reading about my incident-filled adventure with an alien who sends reports to her home country about the trip full of misunderstandings and overlooked things due to the Latino mode I was in.


[Hokura Shrine]
After lunch, we went to Hokura Shrine where we can enjoy a panoramic view of Osaka Bay. We took a cab to go up.

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It is a mecca for early morning climbers, but boy, was this day hot.

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We got off the cab, and to my surprise, it was a good 15 minute-walk up a hill to get to Hokura Shrine.
The lantern erected at this shrine is called “The single light of Nada” and is said to have helped Yamatotakeru (a Japanese legendary prince) from getting lost in the dark ocean.
Susanoo-no-Mikoto (the storm god in Japanese mythology) is worshipped here and Japan’s first emperor Jimmu appears in the story behind it. But don’t be surprised yet how old this shrine is.

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It shouldn’t be forgotten that we are half way up Mount Kincho.
That’s right. The mountainous area is where the Katakamuna was excavated.

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We entered the quiet grounds of the shrine, our hearts pounding with excitement…

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As I have expected!
There it is.
I know that it only looks like an enormous Gonta, the character in the popular kids’ show in the old times…don’t know him, huh? Sorry about that.
But of course, this huge stone existed since ancient times, way before the time of the educational program “Dekirukana” on NHK (Japan’s national broadcaster) and even way before the time of Nihon Shoki (the second oldest book of classical Japanese history)
During ancient times, people erected this enormous stone just for the purpose of praying.

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The shrine pavilion that has been rebuilt after its complete destruction in the earthquake disaster was also surrounded by massive stones.
Wow. Okamoto has finally become the place for Stonehenge monuments too.
All we need to witness now is a UFO landing from the sky.
It feels like a rather different world. Just like Altamira in Spain, there is always a nice breeze in places where it is believed to have been inhabited by people since ancient times.

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I should consider climbing up early morning next time.
Maybe early enough to see the UFO that has barely taken off.
With such crazy thoughts in mind, I walked down the road with hydrangeas in bloom all the way to Okamoto shopping arcade.
Oh, these hydrangeas may not look very gorgeous, but these are native to Japan that naturally grow in Mount Maya, Rokko. The common fuller blossoms are the western hydrangeas.
There is a taste of western culture in the city but a taste of Japanese culture in the mountain.

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[Manor House Motoyama]
This is the eastern end of Okamoto Shopping Arcade.
Walk to the east along the road Nada Sushi is on, through the street lined with variety shops and cafés and you will find Motoyama Daiichi Elementary School on the mountain side.

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The school celebrates its 140th anniversary, and its history dates back to the 8th year of the Meiji era, the year 1875.
It’s around the time when the Satsuma Rebellion breaks out two years later.
The fence facing the road was covered with scrambling vine vegetables.
Young volunteers led by local landscape designers put together a group called “Let’s Color Okamoto Green”, and they take care of the garden regularly and grow plants through natural farming.

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If you continue walking, not so far away, within a residential area appears a little café that would suit the name “The House Café.”
One step inside, and a bright green yard is laid out before your eyes.

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Manor House Okamoto is a cake shop that serves quality tea and rich textured cake.
They also have an afternoon tea set.
In the shop where light shines in brightly, there are many moms spending their early afternoon here.

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Since we had been out in the sun too long today, we took a seat in a quiet corner of this spacious shop.

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Kiara from Italy and Kana from Spain, we who happened to be compatriots during the period of the Roman Empire, had a girls’ talk about our half-day stay in Okamoto.

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This town is filled with female university students and mothers.
Come to think of it, in the literary work of Junichiro Tanizaki, Hosoyuki which represents the Hanshin Culture (Osaka-Kobe Culture) and having one of its setting in Okamoto, the main character was four sisters.
Well, we shouldn’t forget that Japan was originally the land of Amaterasu (goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology).

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The person that said “In the beginning woman was the sun” was undoubtedly Raicho Hiratsuka who dedicated her life to the promotion of women’s rights.
I believe the secrets of her words are hidden in Katakamuna that was excavated in Okamoto.

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The place for mothers’ get-togethers and girls’ talks.
Yes, there are only women in Okamoto!
There is even a bus stop for university students who go to an all-girl university in Yamate, so at certain times of the day, there is a flow of female university students on the streets.
And at the entrance of stylish cafés and restaurants, there are always mamachari bikes, (city bikes often used by mothers) with infant seats attached, parked in front of the shops.
Needless to say, the cafés, variety shops and cake shops are all full of women.
“Today, we’ve seen mostly women only. What a strange feeling.”
Kiara from the land of Mamma Mia was also astonished.
It was a new world of “mamas” to Kiara, who is researching on female scholars who were dedicated to protecting postwar female farmers’ rights.
“By the way, my Japanese friend told me that in Japan people say that a woman’s enemy is a woman. That’s terrible!”
Yes, absolutely. Oops! I shouldn’t have said the truth. Pardon me.

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Kiara and I walked to the station as we chatted about topics concerning girls.
Eight minutes on the super express to Sannomiya.
At any rate, we felt Okamoto is a women’s paradise.

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So this was it. Our trip filled with female encounters ended safely at Oppaiyama.
The correct name is Amore Plaza.
I’m guessing it means “the plaza of love.”
A route that makes a person want to think of women and love seems to be hidden in Okamoto in Nada-ku, Kobe City.
The essence of this concept, when translated to Katakamuna apparently is “Futotamanomi mikoto futomanini.”
That sums up the report from Ka(takamu)na Yukawa.
Oh no! Kobe played a trick on me already using my name!


“A day in Okamoto”
It was my first visit to the town of Okamoto. The thing that surprised me most when I was taken on a tour of the shopping streets is that unlike most regular shopping streets in Japan, the ones in Okamoto are non-arcaded and have no roofs. The ground is not paved with asphalt or dirt, but with beautiful white stones which reminded me of the stone-paved streets in Italy.
By feeling the atmosphere of the town and by looking at the buildings and people walking on the streets, I intuitively had the first impression of Okamoto being a rich and stylish town. Also, because Okamoto is mostly residential, there are hardly any men during the day, and instead people I encountered on the streets were housewives and their children. It was interesting, too, that there were only “moms’ bikes” parked outside of restaurants and cafés. In Okamoto, there are also several universities, and since most students go to Konan Women’s University, I saw a lot of female university students.
However, when I looked closely, I realized that Okamoto is not a fashionable town on the surface only or simply a town with trendy cafés and boutiques. There was a sushi Taisho living modestly running his shop for over 40 years who was unable to remove from the wall the hand-written menu of his wife who passed away in the Great Kobe Earthquake, and as a result left the prices as they were 20 years ago. There was a taxi driver who moved 50 years ago from Oita to work away from home in the bustling port city of Kobe. Encounters with such people gave me the chance to make a discovery of “the other Okamoto.”
The sight of the wild boars lying under the sun on the riverside, the mystic Hokura Shrine with its greens, the enormous stone with shimenawa (sacred straw rope) wrapped around it --- I was able to witness the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature, and this made me feel happy.
I recommend you explore Okamoto more deeply with sharps eyes to find the “other Okamoto,” and don’t be satisfied with just what you see on the surface.

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岡本商店街について

神戸では高級住宅街として知られている岡本。阪急岡本駅~JR摂津本山駅間にあるのが岡本商店街。ファッションを中心に200以上の店舗が軒をならべている。また、甲南大学をはじめ、神戸薬科大学、甲南女子大学に通う多くの学生が集うことから「キャンパスの街」としてもよく知られる。美味しくてオシャレなスイーツのお店やカフェ・ダイニング等も多い。 続きを読む

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