Kobe
Historic Treaty Port; Site Of The Great Hanshin Earthquake Memorial · Kobe, Hyogo
A port city squeezed between the Rokko mountains and Osaka Bay, one of the first Japanese ports opened to foreign trade in 1868, which gave it a cosmopolitan character that it keeps. The Kitano district on the hillside preserves the wooden and brick houses of Western merchants, some open as museums, and Nankinmachi is one of Japan's three Chinatowns. The waterfront at Meriken Park and Harborland has the red lattice Port Tower, the Maritime Museum and a memorial to the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, which killed over six thousand people and destroyed much of the city; a section of broken quay has been left as it was. Kobe is famous around the world for its beef, from Tajima cattle raised in Hyogo, best eaten as teppanyaki. A ropeway climbs to the Nunobiki herb gardens, and Mount Rokko and Mount Maya give some of the best night views in Japan over the lights of the bay. Arima Onsen, one of Japan's oldest hot-spring towns, lies behind the mountains. Kobe is under half an hour from Osaka by train and on the shinkansen; the Nada district brews much of Japan's sake.
Meriken Park, 2 Hatobacho, Chuo Ward, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0042, Japan
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED - CONFIRM BEFORE GOING. The typical pattern: museums and the Kitano houses open from about 9 or 10am to 5 or 6pm, with some houses closing one weekday a month; many museums close on Mondays. The Port Tower opens into the evening. The Nunobiki ropeway and the Mount Maya cable car and ropeway run into the evening for the night views, with last departures down often around 9pm, earlier in winter and on some weekdays, and they stop in high wind. Kobe beef restaurants keep separate lunch and dinner hours, often closing mid afternoon. The traps: missing the last ropeway down, Monday museum closures, and typhoon stoppages. Confirm times before relying on them.