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Jay Tee

Is There A "Kobe City View?"

Yes, and there are other things to see here, too!

Kobe is a spread out city with a compact downtown area that has a confusing layout. Sannomiya Station marks the current city center, a hub of hustle and bustle, shopping and business. It's also near where cruise ships most often stop, at the Kobe Port Terminal on Port Island. (The Port Liner is the easiest way to get in and back!)


Motomachi Station (which means city center) used to be but is no longer the center of most commerce, now notable mostly for its long shopping street and possession of Kobe Chinatown. While westernmost Kobe Station is now seen as being on the outskirts, but it still pulls shoppers through several large shopping malls on an underground path that leads to the waterfront area.


Meriken Park is technically the center of the entire Kobe harbor area (in "front" of Motomachi), but unless there's an event going on, the park offers mostly a wide, flat, open expanse with only a few scattered trees. There is a big sign at the waterfront edge saying "BE KOBE" for TikTokers and Instagrammers, and that's about it. From out there, you can see the harbor, the distant hills, and the small parts of the city which face the waterfront. 


As a side note, the "Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park" is a small portion of Meriken park that takes approximately five minutes to look at, but is quite interesting. It's a small section of sunken, unrepaired pre-1995-earthquake waterfront with a few signs. (The "Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution Museum" is a walk-short-bus-ride-and-walk away in HAT Kobe, but is far more comprehensive about earthquakes and related local history.)

[Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution Museum]


Most of the Kobe waterfront area has no real "city view," except maybe if you pay to go up Kobe Port Tower (1000 yen pp). Even from there, you see mostly the harbor area, and not much of the city. Kobe is too spread out for that.

[Kobe Waterfront Area]


If you want a true city panorama, take the ropeway ride from Shin-Kobe Station up to the famous hillside Nunobiki Herb Garden (2000 yen pp) and enjoy an expansive view of nearly the entire city of Kobe even on cloudy days. In good weather your sight takes in most of Osaka, and give a peek of the far mountains of Wakayama, which form a barrier between Osaka and the Pacific Ocean.


The Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum (700 yen pp) is also located not far from the ropeway in Shin-Kobe, and is a must for history buffs and anyone interested in hand tools or how the Japanese do their amazing wood joinery.


From Shin-Kobe, take a bit of a hill walk across the Kobe Promenade to Kitano, where there are many picturesque old half-Japanese, half-European buildings. This is where the foreigners were required to live in the "old days" of the samurai. Many used to be foreign consulates/embassies to Japan, since Kobe was one of the only two open ports, and the closest to Edo and Japanese political power (now modern Tokyo). Some buildings are museums, and may be entered for a small fee.


[view from Kobe Promenade]


Kitano, while it is a former foreign settlement, is NOT to be confused with "the Former Foreign Settlement of Kobe," where all foreign people were originally placed in Kobe, way down next to the ocean's edge. If you go there now, all you will see is a bunch of thoroughly modern office buildings in downtown Kobe, with markers that say what foreign buildings used to be placed there, instead!

Once upon a time the original foreign settlement was badly flooded out by storms (even the cemetery washed out!), and the survivors were moved uphill to Kitano.

[Kitano]


[Kitano]


Ikuta Shrine is ten minutes walk straight downhill from the Kitano area, close to Sannomiya Station, and always worth the stroll. Going deeper into town quickly leads to a restaurant area with hundreds of choices (and the best place to get true Kobe beef at a reasonable price!). A westward walk from the restaurants leads to Nankin-machi (Kobe Chinatown), the second-largest and possibly the oldest Chinatown in Japan.

[Nankin-Machi (Kobe Chinatown)]


[Nankin-Machi (Kobe Chinatown)]


If time allows after enjoying Nankin-machi, follow the Motomachi covered shopping street all the way to Kobe Station, and loop back to the waterfront area facing Kobe Port Tower and Meriken Park across a small bay. That tiny bay and glimpse of a few buildings is unfortunately the only "Kobe city view" most tourists think of, when they think of Kobe.


Most of these can be visited and enjoyed in a single six hour walking tour. Depending on your endurance, booking an eight hour walking tour might allow a more relaxed approach, or even more places to enjoy. Kobe has buses and trains, and I recommend their use where appropriate, but they do little to reduce the amount of walking required, nor to save time.


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