Rokkomichi Bike and Bowl

It was a whilrwind weekend of children's birthday parties. But on Saturday, while Ilena and Lauren were at a girls-only Hannah Montana party (oh the humanity!), Mike and Jacob got to spend the day together. We decided to go on a bike ride off of Rokko Island to nearby Rokkomichi (also in Kobe).

Using our bikes to actually go places is actually a really nice thing. You can spend a nice slow-paced day of exploration just doing something like taking a bike trip to a nearby town. And Jacob loves bike trips, especially when we get to climb up and down the ramps and over the Rokko Island bridge. Rokkomichi is a small train station centered area (like many in Kobe), but it has lots of restaurants and a nice park. So, we biked around town, grabbed some snacks, played in the park, and had a great leisurely day. We even caught a tiny parade consisting of a single danjiri float being hauled through the little town, which we followed by bike.

One of our ulterior motives in choosing Rokkomichi as a destination is that we had noticed that they have a bowling alley there. We wanted to scout it out as a candidate for Jacob's 7th birthday party at the end of November. Jacob's last two birthday parties back home have been bowling parties; we were not banking on continuing the tradition...until now. Rokko Bowl has 50 lanes, automated scoring and bumpers. And, our personal favorite, a bowling shoe rental vending machine. (Very Japanese). You just pop in 300 yen, punch in your size, and a door opens with your bowling shoes.

Of course, we had to play a couple of games to check it out.

Now its looking like we will be having the old bowling birthday party for the third straight year . . .