It's Raining in Kobe

You’ve just spent thirty-plus minutes speeding past gray, nondescript houses, warehouses, and industrial buildings on your way to Kobe.

You’re bored, otherwise you wouldn’t have left Osaka. But it was raining in Osaka, and although in many ways it seems very much like Tokyo it somehow also feels very different. The simidifferentialism of it all leaves you feeling alienated and lonely. So you boarded a train for Kobe. It’s also raining in Kobe, but at least you’ve never been to Kobe before.

It’s coming down hard when you arrive, but you check the weather app on your phone just to be sure. Yup, raining.

Due to poor planning on your part it’s Monday. All museums in Japan—anything of interest, really—are closed on Monday. It makes sense: the weekend is over, and who would be going to museums on a Monday? But what else is there to do in Kobe? Drink craft beer, like some kind of Mike or Jeff or Scott? Actually, yes! You like beer, and you’ve been trying to expand your interests. Maybe it would even help you to connect more with your coworkers. Yes, it is decided: you’ll go to a brewery! Didn’t you see one earlier when looking up things to do in Kobe? Ah yes, here it is. Near Harbor Land. Not too far to walk. It opens at 4 PM. And now it is now…1:30 PM.

What to do in Kobe on a Monday when it’s raining….

Well, since it is raining, you’re going to need an umbrella. You didn’t plan for rain, so of course you don't have one. You look around the station building for a convenience store. You spot several unattended umbrella stands that require an app and a subscription to use, which disgusts you. And they’re operated by...AU? Why is a cell phone operator pedalling umbrellas? Anyway, being very anti-not-staying-in-your-lane, you dismiss the stands and continue your search for a convenience store. You soon find a 7-11 on the North side of the station and pick out a perfectly fine plastic umbrella from the galvanized bucket of identical plastic umbrellas and, because it’s raining outside, you also get a bottle of hot barley tea—you know, to warm your hands while walking out in the cold wet.

Clutching your new umbrella, you return to the South exit and take a sip of tea as you look out into the rain, contemplating the prospect of walking around in it. A few more sips of tea and you stow the bottle in your bag, to warm the hands of your camera. Wait, do cameras have hands? No, that’s watches. What time is it? Where’s your watch? Oh yeah, you left it at home because Apple gave you a USB-C adapter, and every affordable hotel in Japan is from the 80’s and retrofitted in 2009. Your phone says, 1:43. But what does it know? You’ve been standing there for much longer than that!

Feeling the need to make a decision, your eyes wander around the station and land on a kanji you know you’ve forgotten long ago. It’s like a “who” and a “horse” at the same time, but you’re sure it must mean something delicious because it’s being used to describe a delectable-looking butter soy latte. One quick lookup later, and, Oh! It means burned or scorched! Yes, everything makes sense now.

Grasping for any excuse to not venture into the rain, you convince yourself that you will go drink one of those concoctions while you wait for the downpour to abate. It would have gone smoothly except that a group of adolescent boys beat you to the line and flitted about making noncommittal assertions about their planned orders, as if anyone else in the group actually cared. Boys.

When it’s finally your turn, you order your drink with apex efficiency and then, as you wait, stare out the front window into the pouring rain, the rain…which has…stopped. Fucking rain.