KOBE HOTELS

Kobe Hotels & Travel Guide - Kobe Hotels (Save up to 70% on Kobe hotels), Kobe maps, Kobe attractions and Kobe food.

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.
 

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Recommended Kobe Hotel New Otani Harborland Hotel is a very and affordable 5 star hotel, located close to public transport and only a short train ride from central Kobe.

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.
 

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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.

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.

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.)