Home

JAPAN GUIDE

Make Japanese Lifestyle your homepage  

This Site Web
Google

?
Questions about your trip to Japan. Ask them in our
forum.

KOBE HOTELS & TRAVEL GUIDE

Kobe Japan - Kobe Guide - Getting to Kobe, Kobe sight seeing, Kobe food and Kobe Hotels.

Kōbe (神戸) is one of Japan's underappreciated cities. A cosmopolitan port city with an international flavour, hemmed in by Mt. Rokko, it constantly comes up number one in expatriate rankings of the best place to live in Japan.
 
 

Kobe Hotels

Looking for
Kobe Accommodation?
Save up to 70% on Kobe Hotels by using our partner's secure booking system.
Please support our site by using our Kobe Hotels reservation system.

Understanding Kobe

A port in what would become Kōbe was established as a concession to western powers in 1868, during the time when Japan was opening to the world. Nagasaki and Yokohama had already begun serving foreign ships nine years earlier. Today, a synagogue, a Chinatown, and European architecture mark Kōbe as a place that foreigners and foreign culture first came to Japan.

On January 17, 1995 an earthquake measured at 7.2 on the Richter Scale occurred at 05:46am JST near the city killing 6,433, making 300,000 homeless and destroying large parts of the port facilities and other parts of the city. It was one of the most costly natural disasters in modern history. The earthquake notably destroyed the Hanshin Expressway, an elevated freeway which dramatically toppled over: within Japan, the earthquake is known as the Great Hanshin Earthquake (or the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake). In the last 10 years, the city has recovered completely, but it lost some of its ship traffic.

Kōbe's core surrounds Sannomiya (三宮) Station, rather than Kobe Station. Sannomiya station has a tourist information office, well-stocked with area maps.

Getting to Kobe

By train
The San'yo Shinkansen stops at Shin-Kōbe station, which is one stop on the Yamate-Seishin subway line from Sannomiya.

If you are coming from Osaka, there are several ways to arrive in Sannomiya. Trains on the Hankyu and Hanshin private lines both depart from from Umeda station and take 28 min („310). Trains on the JR Kobe line, depart from JR Osaka station and take 21 min („390). The Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka station requires only 15 minutes, but costs „2,810.

By plane
The nearest international airport is Kansai International Airport. The fastest, albeit traffic-prone, way to get from there to Kobe is the Airport Limousine bus, although the JR Rapid Express connecting at Osaka is not much slower and more dependable. Ferries from the airport have been discontinued.

The nearest domestic airport is Osaka's Itami Airport, but Kobe's own airport, built on reclaimed land in front of the harbour, is scheduled to open in 2005.

Getting Around Kobe

By train
The Hankyu, Hanshin and JR lines cross Kōbe in a west-east direction, and provide the cheapest and fastest way to travel across town.

By subway
Kōbe has two subway lines. The Kaigan Line runs along along the coast, and the Yamate-Seishin Line runs toward the mountains. Both are more expensive than ordinary trains and unlikely to be of use for the traveller, except when connecting to Shin-Kōbe.

By light rail
The automated Port Liner links Sannomiya to the reclaimed port district south of the city, and (in 2005) to the new airport as well. Likewise, the Rokko Liner links the Rokko Island area to JR Sumiyoshi station.

By bus
Kōbe has a bus system, which may be your best choice when travelling in the north-south direction.

On foot
Kōbe is thin in the north-south direction, but long in the west-east direction. Since much of it is built on a hill, a reasonable itinerary is to take the bus up the hill, and walk down.

Kobe Sight Seeing

Ijinkan (異人館) (walking distance from either Sannomiya or Shin-Kobe stations) Kōbe's number-one attraction is the Ijinkan or Barbarian Houses. These are 19th-century residences of Kobe's foreign traders, clustered in the Kitano area. Europeans who grew up in similar scenery may find them less fascinating.

Meriken Park (メリケンパーク) near the harborfront has a poignant memorial to the devastating Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, which killed 6,433 people. Kobe Tower nearby is the unofficial symbol of the city and offers a viewing pavilion („600).

Harbour Land (adjacent to Kobe station). This is a modern shopping and dining area, developed on the edge of the Kobe Bay.

Kōbe is a well-known center of sake production and many sake breweries are in the Nada (灘) area, and have tours or museums open to the public. You can pick up a map of the sake breweries at the tourist information office in Sannomiya.

Sawa-no-Tsuru Museum (沢の鶴資料館) (10-minute walk from Hanshin Ōishi station 大石駅). 078-882-7788. Open daily 10 AM to 4 PM, closed Weds. This museum is probably the best of the bunch, with an informative multi-level exhibit partly labeled in English, and a well-stocked gift shop. Free entry, but no free sake.

Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum (walking distance from Hankyu Mikage station 御影駅 or Sumiyoshi station 住吉駅), 078-822-8907. Open daily 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM, closed Mon. This museum is located inside a former brewery, and features traditional tools, dioramas and English-language videos to explain the sake-making processes. At the end, you can sample some sake, which is non-pasteurized, presumably because it doesn't have to travel far from the factory. Write your name on a piece of paper provided by the guard and return that at the end. Free entry, free sake.

Hamafukutsuru-Ginjo Brewery and Shop Open daily 10 AM to 5 PM, closed Mon. 078-411-0492. Reportedly, Hamafukutsuru offers factory tours, rather than just a museum.

What to do in Kobe

Rokko (六甲山 Rokko-san) and its Rock Garden, the first an easy cable car trip for suitable romantic evenings, the second a light day's hiking with an excellent view. The view over the glittering expanse of Osaka Bay is canonized as one of the Three Great Night Views.

Kobe Shopping

Kōbe's shopping is clustered around the Sannomiya train station and the Center-Gai shopping arcade leading off from it. Many of the unassuming little cafes and specialty shops in the arcade in fact have histories tracing back well over a hundred years.

Piazza Kōbe (ピアザ神戸) and Motokō Town (モトコータウン) are the two names of essentially one long arcade where all manner of second-hand goods are sold. These stores are underneath the JR lines, running from Sannomiya station, past Motomachi Station, to Kōbe Station.

Kobe Food

Kobe has a large number of restaurants offering international cuisine.

Kōbe is known worldwide for its Kobe beef, exquisitely marbled, very fatty and very expensive beef. Recommended for a splurge, but expect to pay close to „10,000 per head.

Nankinmachi (walking distance from Sannomiya station). Cheap eats can be found in Kōbe's Chinatown.

Drink
Kōbe's specialty are tachinomiya, literally stand-and-drink bars.
 

Kobe Accommodation

Kōbe has a wide variety of accommodation, ranging from love hotels near Shin-Kobe to luxury hotels by the waterfront.

Get out of Kobe

Arima Onsen, a hot-spring town located at the terminus of the Mt. Rokko cable car
Himeji, a small town with Japan's most beautiful castle, is a 20 minute train ride away.

(Article based on Wikitravel article by Wikitravel users Jose Ramos, Namgay Dorji, Bujdosó Attila, Brian Kurkoski and Mark Jaroski and Wikitravel user(s) Janki, Jpatokal and Nzpcmad.  and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel.  Article used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0.)

Japan Topics Discuss Japan

Last edited on 14/05/08 Copyright 2001 - 2008
mi marketing Pty Ltd. ACN 098 375 145 trading as Japanese LifeStyle. All Trademarks belong to their respective owners.