Once it became clear that Kobe would be a safe place to stay, if only for a few months, the refugees began to settle into the city. Considering the conditions the Jews had just fled and would soon face in Shanghai, life in Kobe was by all accounts exceptional. In fact, almost every Jew in Kobe was able to live comfortably for their duration there, and their lives resembled that of tourists rather than refugees. As one survivor remarked, "We were tourists. When we were in Japan, we were tourists. My parents weren't working as such, I mean certainly not making an income, and we would travel to various places. Went to Kyoto, I remember that. We went to resorts. We walked, went in the mountains. I mean there are a lot of photographs that tourists take of themselves in front of various shrines or Buddhas or whatnot."