On our fourth day in Kobe, Kaizer and me headed to the Mitsui Outlet Park @ Marine Pia Kobe, which is just a couple of train stops away. Couldn’t cover the entire park because we were stuck for some time at the Legoland. I managed to get shoes and bags though. On our fifth day in Kobe, Kok loon took some time off from the conference and since he was with us, I thought we’ll go up to Mount Rokko to visit the pastures. But after having found out that we needed to take a train, bus, cable car, and yet another bus just to get there (plus come back via the same way), we opted for a day trip to the Mitsui Outlet Park again. This time round, we both took turns to shop while Kaizer was stuck at Legoland. So it’s two days devoted to shopping at the outlet park. Luckily on the second day, we managed to get quite a lot of top for all four of us (we didn’t forget Titus).
Kok Loon and me on the train ride to Mitsui Outlet Park.
On the way to/from the park, Kaizer would stop ever so often to touch the greens.
Specifically, he was searching for dandelions. He spent a lot of time in Japan searching for dandelions because he wants to see the seeds disperse when he touches/blows it.
Sipping green tea and taking a break in a shaded spot now and then …
… because the sun was blazing hot with almost no cloud cover for the most part of the sky.
Quite a few yachts were berthed at Marine Pia Kobe, but it was too hot (and windless) to take a stroll along the waterside to see them up close.
From the outlet park, you can get a decent view of the megastructure Akashi Kaikyo Bridge.
Playing with lego at the toddler play area in the outlet park’s Legoland, …
… at a worktable meant for older children in Legoland, …
… and at the agnès b store while I shopped.
Happy with his lego-overdose!
An observation that I made while watching him play in Legoland and other public spaces, is that Japanese children are very well behaved in general. Playing alongside and sharing toys with other children is a norm. In fact throughout the entire trip, we only came across one boy who refused to share (some dials at a train display at the Kobe Science Museum).
There was a crocs outlet …
… and since we’re on a holiday, I bought him a jibbitz with no strings attached. All his favourite things in a litle jibbitz – pink, purple and crayons.
Trying to run away from me in the huge Adidas store because he imagined I was the big bad wolf, and he the little pig.
There was a Macs in the outlet park, so we had lunch there on the first day.
The children’s toys were really nice, not like those usually seen in Singapore! Kaizer collected no 2, 5 and 6 by the end of the trip. You have to pump air into them and then they’ll jitter for about 3-5 seconds on a flat surface.
I got myself a cute apple pie food strap too.
Knocked out in the ergo carrier after a day of shopping.
More clouds plus a light sea breeze greeted us when we were leaving the outlet park. The entire park is modeled after a southern European port town. If I were here in spring or autumn, I can totally imagine myself taking a nice walk along the shore.
On the way back to the train station, we managed to see the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge at dusk. Lovely!
