Media Café Popeye's メディアカフェポパイ

Ta-da Media Café Popeye's at 8F of  Green Chapeau Building building just near Hankyu Sannomiya station.

Might be hard to spot as there's really not much signage outside, but there is a very obvious one in the lift.

The reception area, the colour of the lights changes every few seconds.

For less than 3Kyen/ person/ night, we get 12h of stay with unlimited internet (a bit slow), manga, TV, soft-serve ice cream, coffee, tea and various soft drinks. There's also a shower room for us thought limited to only 30mins of use.

ROWS AND ROWS OF MANGAS!!

Really a great experience. I guess there is no other place in the world that you can do this besides

Japan. It's really very safe and everything is just soooo clean!

We opted for the non-smoking area. 

This is our pair-mat booth for 2 person (the next morning after we have made a mess....ok la, still neat right?)

Inside, there's hangers, a PC and a TV. If you want to play games, you can opt for a booth with a PS or game console I guess. They even provided jackets and blankets in case we feel cold.

Cuzzie used the PC to work while I watched TV.

This is the sliding door and there's a little 'genkan' for you to take your shoes off.

The dimly lit corridors so as not to disturb the others.

Corridor to our booth

The manga and drinks are all in the common area. FOC! :D

Some snacks for sale.

So thankful for the free hot drinks like hot cocoa, tea or water because the weather was so cold and I wasn't feeling well.

To use the shower room, just book a time slot at the counter. 

See the 2 white doors between the comics? That's the locked shower room. Amenities are all provided, even the hair dryer. No towels, but I supposed you can rent one at the counter. We brought ours so I don't know how much it costs to rent one.

opps....blur pic, but as you can see, there are towels available for rent.

This is the common female toilet.

As you can see, every thing is very clean.

With a cute one piece sign too.....thanking you for your patronage. hahaha....

You can't lock the booth, there's only a sliding door with a glass window and if you tip-toe you can actually peek inside someone's booth. But no one will purposely look into your booth through the glass window or above your booth. So it's safe! If you don't trust the people there, there are coin lockers available for large luggages and there's even a small safe in each booth.

Me spying on cuzzie....

Basically, if you switch off the lights to sleep, no one can see anything inside.

The booth next to our was a single booth with an arm chair and was occupied by a male who spent his whole night reading mangas.

There are actually many mangakissa available, some even have a females only section. The one that I stayed in have no females only section but it's ok.

This was such a great experience. I think I will try another mangakissa the next time I visit Japan.

This is the one I stayed at, Media Café Popeye's メディアカフェポパイ, and there is usually one in every city - http://www.media-cafe.ne.jp/tenpo/sannomiya2/service.htm#charge

Kobe- Nankinmichi

From the harbour to the city area, we walked past some interesting statues.

Passed by Kobe motomachi shopping area

Nankinmichi (http://www.nankinmachi.or.jp/index.html)

The China town of Kobe!

We walked past this shop called Kobe croquette which had really long queues and decided to join the crowd. 

No regrets! 

The best croquettes I've ever had! All these for only 619yen, so much cheaper and yummier than the ones we got from Hankyu Umeda.

Seafood with tartar sauce

I think this is the normal potato one

Ebi!!!!

Crowds everywhere

Here you will find that majority of the shop keepers could speak mandarin and they seem to think that cuzzie and I are from Taiwan. hahaa.......

Walk-walk-walk......decided to try some gyouzas. Yummy! the cook it right before serving~ 300yen only for 5 pieces.

Then some chinese buns which weren't very good.....

This is the centre of nankinmachi. 

Here you can find statues of the 12 chinese astrological signs. 

All those people side are queuing to enter a chinese restaurant.

.....and because I was starting to feel unwell, some chinese ramen because they actually had a stall we could sit in to enjoy the meal. 300yen per bowl, just average.

Noodle with thick gravy sauce.

At the end of nankinmachi

Bye-bye~

Passed by some major shopping centres on the way to the station. Can't remember if this is Daimaru or Marui shopping Centre.

After that, we went back to Santica to collect our bags and headed towards Green Chapeau Building to look for the mangakissa where were to spend the night.

Once again, thanks to the people of Kobe who gave us directions, we managed to find the place. This one particular women closing her shop alone when I approached her for directions. She seemed cold at first but then she immediately dumped her shop to bring us directly to the building. How nice~

Kobe trip- Harbour area

Kobe is the fifth largest city in Japan, which explains why the city is so packed.

From Rokko, we took the Hankyu line to Kosokukobe (290yen). Once you exit, you will immediately see Duo Kobe.

Really long escalator from the station to Duo Kobe

Shopped along Duo Kobe, Promena Kobe and Ha.Re, on the way to Canal Garden and Mosaic at Harbourland where we got all these shots.

I was carrying soo many things because at I bought almost 11kyen worth of clothes at Duo Kobe. 
:(
 fly money fly~ Bought a blazer, skirt-pants, shoes, sweater and some blouses.

And I chose such a 'nice timing' to go shopping for clothes! Knowing that we would be spending the night in a manga kissa and the next day we would be going for concert. So we will be putting our things in   lockers everywhere before going back to the hotel!! ahh.....plus all the extra weight that I had to carry~

Cross the road and enter the mall opposite this interesting building and you will find a 100yen Can Do shop.

New mall - UMIE (ウミエ) , not all the shops are open yet.

This type of concept, reminds me of Publika.

So funny, while walking through here, I overheard a girl talking about Kis-My-Ft2 to her boyfriend at a cafe nearby. I was trying to eavesdrop on what she was saying but we were too far...... Lol, it's like I have a Kisumai radar in me.

What a special escalator......I think I took one too at a different mall.

There's a nana's green tea store (http://www.nanaha.com/) here. It was on my to try list....but I was too full!! :( 

Saw it again at another mall 2 days later, but I just had dinner too!! :(

It's ok, I read that they have a branch in Singapore too, so I will try the one in Sg instead.

Finally at the harbour. 

So pretty, there are actually a lot of nice buildings in Kobe.

Oriental Hotel

Hotel La Suite Kobe Harbourland

I think if you could afford it, should definitely stay at either of these hotels because the views will be magnificent at night or during sunrise/sunset!

Kobe Cruise

There are several cruise that one can take here. Different cruise provide different services and take different routes.

One such is the Kobe Concerto (http://www.kobeconcerto.com/English/)! Live music, beautiful scenery and nice food on a cruise......PERFECT!!! If I have more time next time, I will go for it!

Yokoso, Kobe Tower  (http://www.kobe-meriken.or.jp/port-tower/).
 This tower was completed in 1963. 

A very nice guy helped snap this pic and he couldn't help but tease my cousin. So cute~ ppl here are so nice.

So pretty....it will light up at night~

My attempt at a panoramic shot

It costs 600yen to go up the tower. Buy your ticket from the ticket machine and up you go~

Once you enter, you will see a compilation of all the towers in Japan.

Kobe Meriken Park in the back and that fancy building is the maritime museum. hmm....Lot's of similar rectangular extensions in the background. No time to explore all of them this time. There's just so much to see in this area considering Kobe Port is Kansai's busiest port.

I'm moving anti-clockwise around the tower as I'm snapping these pics.

Kobe City. We were at the mountains behind just in the morning and now we're at the port.

Love Key anyone? Many of these towers have areas like these targeted towards couples.

Mosaic was where we came from to get to this tower.

Trying to get some nice shots but my flash kept flashing at unnecessary moments.

As with all high towers, they have this......

There are also restaurants that you can dine at here, but we had to make our way back to Sannomiya before dark cuz we weren't sure if we would be able to get a place at the manga kissa (just in case). Cuzzie would really love to see the tower light up at night, so much that she thought of travelling back here at night alone.

But off we go~ back to the city.....