World Cup Diary:Why Tokyo boys and Kobe shouldn’t marry girls

FIRST CUT IS THE SWEETEST

Downtown Kobe - 'a peach of a city'. Picture: AFP/Getty.

After finally getting a taste of it, we must briefly return to the subject of Kobe beef.

A group of the Scottish press took up an offer from the Kobe City promotion bureau for an excellent trip, which included an appetite-stirring walk up to the stunning and sacred Nunobiki Falls in the hills which overlook central Kobe, a visit to a Sake brewery and museum, with an opportunity for tasting – and a lunch of the city’s most famous product.

Suffice to say, believe the hype about the beef. It was truly glorious. I savoured every mouth-melting moment knowing this premium experience at the well-regarded Kobe Kikusui restaurant would be my only chance.

Looking longingly in restaurant windows, the only Kobe beef remotely near my budget tends to be “skirt” and “flank”. After yesterday’s lunch the offcuts may not quite cut it.

It reminded me of a Japanese-American guy I met Tokyo. On hearing my next destination he told me thatTokyo fathers used to warn their sons not to marry a Kobe girl as she’d leave them penniless due to the expensive culinary taste they grow accustomed to.

WELL PLAID KOBE

I am falling for Kobe more with every passing day. It is a peach of a city.

The guides have been keen to tell the Scots about the new Kobe tartan, launched to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening up of Kobe to the outside world after the fall of the samurai shoguns.

There are strong Scottish links with the city, including Alexander Cameron Sim (1840-1900), founder of the Kobe Regatta and Athletic Club.

The tartan is predominantly sea blue, with pearl white to represent the main colour of the city’s architecture, red for the distinctive Ohashi bridge, with a background green for the forested Rokkosan mountains that surround the city.