✈ Keeping Kosher in Kobe, Japan

Contributed by Sam Adler | Last Date of Travel: March 2008

Kosher Info: There are no kosher restaurants here. The synagogue might be able to provide meals, but buying fruit and bringing your own food is a good idea. 

Tourist Info: Kobe is a must visit on your vacation in Japan.

Here is a quick list of things to do and attractions around Kobe:

• Visit Choueke Yashiki, a historic mansion filled with memorabilia from every corner of the world.
• See the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge.
• Climb the Kobe Port Tower. Not literally, but take the elevator to the observation tower for a great view!
• Check out the Ikuta Shrine, oddly located near the bustling parts of Kobe, by the Sannomiya shopping center of the modern city.

Jewish Info: There is a very nice synagogue in Kobe, run by an American Rabbi Yerachmiel Strausberg with his French wife Tova and their 5 kids. They are delightful, and have been there since 2006.

They get a nice crowd for Shabbat. Many people come in from Osaka for Shabbat. There are a lot of hotels near the shul, which is located in a great part of town. Shabbat walks are a pleasure here. http://www.jcckobe.org

✈ Keeping Kosher in San Juan, PR

Contributed by: Paul Hurwitz | Last Date of Travel: December 2006

Most tourists staying in San Juan actually stay in the nearby suburb of Carolina, which is near the airport.

Kosher Info:

The San Juan area does not have any kosher restaurants. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t have any options. Because PR is part of the US, the supermarkets do carry many US brands that are kosher, especially the Pueblo market in Carolina which has many tourists. Items you can purchase in Pueblo include (but are not limited to) frozen Empire chicken products, milk, Lactaid milk, juice, yogurt, cereal, bread and snacks. You can also order kosher meals for both weekday and Shabbat from Chabad of Puerto Rico. You can join the Chabad Rabbi, Rabbi Mendel Zarchi, and his family for Shabbat dinner. Make sure to order meals or arrange to join the Zarchis before your trip.

Tourist Info:

Because Puerto Rico is part of the US, Americans do not need a passport to vacation here. The currency is US Dollars.

The time of year that you visit will have a big impact on how much a hotel costs per night. The peak season starts at the end of December and runs through mid-April. My wife and I went in the middle of December and saved $150 per night in our hotel because it was before the official peak season. There are many hotels in San Juan/Carolina to stay at and most are right on the beach. The hotels in Old San Juan are going to be more expensive than the ones in Carolina.

My wife and I stayed at the ESJ Towers (different from the El San Juan Hotel) and I cannot recommend it enough, especially for frum travellers. The owner of the hotel is a Jewish gentleman who is friends with the Chabad rabbi. One of the main reasons we chose this hotel is that each room has a full kitchen. This allowed us to bring a lot of our own food and cook in our room. The ESJ Towers is extremely accomodating to frum travellers. If you ask for new dishes, utensils and toaster oven for kashrut reasons, they will provide brand new items at no cost. All of the rooms use an electronic card key, but just leave it at the front desk when you leave the hotel on Shabbat and when you ask for your key they will send someone with you to open your room without you even needing to ask. Clearly this is a hotel that has had quite a few frum guests. We recommended this hotel to friends who went several months later and they had the same experience.

Things to do:

We only did activities in the northeast quarter of Puerto Rico, so these suggestions are from our experiences.

Old San Juan is an almost 500 year old neighborhood and contains many plazas that are interesting from an historical perspective. There are several forts in Old San Juan that are very impressive especially El Morro, the largest one. On Calle Christo, there is a Ben and Jerry’s Scoop shop. Plan to spend about half a day in Old San Juan. From Old San Juan you can take a ferry from Pier 2 across to Cantana and visit the Casa Bacardi Rum Distillery. The grounds are beautiful and you can take a tour and get 2 free drinks. Available in the gift store and nowhere else is a Premium Aged 12 year old rum for $70. I bought the 8 year old rum and love it. It can be compared to a nice aged single malt scotch.  If anyone goes and wants to bring me a bottle of the 12 year rum, I will be forever greatful.

Two more activities that we did and most people said cannot be missed are hiking in the El Yunque National Forest and kayaking in Fajardo Bay in the Northeast quarter of Puerto Rico.  El Yunque is the only tropical rain forest in the US Forest Service system.  You can choose to make your trip to El Yunque as short and easy as you want or go further up the hill and do some real hiking in the back part of the forest.  Remember to bring a poncho or raincoat, it can be raining in El Yunque and nowhere else on the island.  Cape San Juan Nature Reserve includes Laguna Grande in Fajardo.  Laguna Grande, also called the Bio Bay is one of about 15 bioluminescent bays in the world.  The water is full of micro-organisms that when agitated, at night, have a blue glow to them.  You can go on a kayak tour of the biobay.  You have two choices, to go on a tour that starts as its getting dark or a tour that starts once its already dark.  We took the tour that started as it was getting dark and we were extremely happy we did.  We got to see the surrounding areas and the flora and fauna as it was getting dark and then saw the glowing when it was completely dark.  We felt we would have missed a lot if we went on the one that started after dark.  The highlight for me was going swimming after it was dark and see the water glow around me.  Las Tortugas Adventures (http://kayak-pr.com/biobaytour.html) came highly recommended and we were very happy with them.

Of course you can’t forget to just relax and lay on the beach.

Jewish Info:

The Chabad shul in Carolina on Calle Rosa has daily minyan, as well as Shabbat minyan. There is usually sit-down kiddush on Shabbat morning that people make into lunch as well.  Chabad of Puerto Rico is a very useful website for contacting Chabad, tourist info and ordering food.

✈ Keeping Kosher in Tallinn, Estonia

Contributed by: Arielle Klein  |  Last Date of Travel: June 2008

Kosher Info: Of all the places we never thought we’d find a fancy kosher restaurant, Tallinn was one of them. Lo and behold we found Moses a beautiful Israeli owned restaurant located within Tallinn’s beautiful synagogue. Walking in the synagogue took our breaths away more on that later. Moses offers haute cuisine at haute prices. We had a delicious meal that took quite a bite out of the wallet but as it is the only kosher restaurant around we had no choice. Beware they even charge for water. The menu is small but they offer wine and a few chicken dishes some Israeli dishes, fish and beef dishes. It’s definitely an experience worth having. In terms of finding other food there isn’t much so make sure you bring lots of food with if you are having an extended stay because Moses will eat away your wallet otherwise.

Tourist Info: Tallinn is fairytale perfect. The medieval city is full of beautiful cobble stoned streets, castles with turrets, and architecture that takes your breath away. There are antique shops galore and stores full of novelties like Faberge replica eggs and intricately painted babushka dolls. The Eastern European flavor and centuries of history is redolent in the air. If you go at the right time you may even make it for the old town days when everyone is dressed in medieval costumes and merchants sell their wares on the streets.

Estonia has some fabulous tourist attractions. They are also a really great place to indulge in some spa treatments since the prices are ridiculously cheap.

Check out Kiek in de Kok. My husband thought this was the funniest thing ever. It is a medieval fortress that was used to fortify the city and it means in lower German “peek in the kitchen”. It is four or five floors full of interesting artifacts from the fortress and medieval times and a gives a good perspective on Eastern European history and the region.

Fat Margaret is a round dome shaped fortress at the beginning of the old city.

We went to this spa called Nalne Beauty Salon. We both had fabulous massages and I had an amazing facial the whole thing with tips cost about a $170 dollars; in the States it would have been much more.

In terms of accommodations Estonia is dirt cheap. While on the rest of our trip to Europe we stayed in hostels, but in Estonia we were able to stay in actual hotel that was nice and clean with a hot towel bar in the bathroom! (after staying in hostels these things become very exciting)

Because Tallinn is truly medieval you can have a blast just walking around taking in the sights. Check out the fun pink parliament building too.

Tallin is really a fabulous city make sure you get there before the secret gets out.

Jewish Info: As mentioned above Tallinn has a beautiful brand new synagogue that was constructed in 2007. In the 1800′s Tallinn had a thriving Jewish community with a synagogue, butchers , mikvaot, a cultural center and Jewish schools. In WWII the synagogue was destroyed and Estonia was the first country declared by Nazi Germany to be Judeinfrei- free of Jews. In 2007 a synagogue was finally rebuilt providing a place for Tallinn’s Jews to worship. As mentioned there is also an onsite restaurant, a museum, and a mikveh. The shul is also known as Congregation Beit Bella. It is affiliated with Chabad Lubavitch. getting a tour is not so easy. When we were there we wanted to see the magnificent glass structure but were told by the scary security guard in halting English that, it was not allowed. I guess we’ll have to make a trip back. For more info on the shul check out. http://www.chabad.org/centers/default_cdo/aid/118417/jewish/Estonian-Jewish-Center.htm