Kobe, Japan September 2024 £1 = ¥192
We didn't expect much from Kobe. Before our visit, the only thing I associated with the city was the renowned "Kobe" beef, and I certainly didn't anticipate seeing cattle wandering the streets. As a pescatarian, I wasn't interested in the beef itself so sampling steak as an activity was out the window too. Although there are a few "top ten things to do in Kobe" lists out there on the internet, a lot of the bullet points focused on activities away from the city itself - so that left us completely open to make it up ourselves and what we wanted was to wander.
We left Sannomiya (the area our hotel was located) behind and made our way to Kobe's vibrant Chinatown. Even if the giant gates marking the entrance to Chinatown weren't obvious enough of a sign, it was clear we had arrived when we left the wide "European" style streets of Kobes old foreign settlement and entered a world of tightly packed stalls and large picture menus. It was close and loud, full of intriguing scents and had we not just had breakfast we would have dived right into sampling the gyoza and dumplings on offer. In it's centre sits a gaudy red and gold pavilion surrounded by statues depicting the animals of the Zodiac, and gold lanterns filling the sky around it. We enjoyed our visit, but it the whole area was a lot smaller that we'd anticipated so after 30 minutes we were on our way.
With no real destination in mind we made our way to the waterfront, ending up in Kobe's striking port area, walking along wide streets filled with imposing European buildings to get there. On the edge of the port, was the Kobe Earthquake Memorial park. Here, part of the damage from the 1995 earthquake has been preserved. A walkway surrounding severely listing lampposts and an obliterated concrete path, slowly being swallowed by the sea, reveals a small section of the vast damage that happened. Having had no knowledge of the earthquake before happening on this memorial, the damage was even more shocking to come across especially in comparison to the pristine port that has replaced it.
Wanting to find out a bit more about the area we'd been exploring, we headed to the Kobe City Museum and their free exhibit. Turns out, when Japan first opened it's borders to trade they still skewed pretty heavily towards an isolationist mindset. So although they were interested in some of the goods on offer, they weren't ready to have visiting merchants freely mixing with their populous making foreign settlements a necessity. Parcels of land were sectioned off and given over to foreigners as place they could work and trade from (movement outside of this area was heavily restricted), hence the very typical European architecture we'd seen. The museum detailed how the area grew from more modest homes and warehouses to the imposing structures that are leftover today.
Feeling slightly peckish, we made our way to San Plaza, an expansive shopping centre with a secret. At street level, you'll find the typical array of stores (clothing boutiques, cafes, and shops offering pricey knick-knacks nobody ever purchases), but one floor down, in a maze of underground passageways, there are over 80 restaurants to choose from. Having done no research other than watching a video where i found out it existed, finding a great place to eat rather than somewhere that was just nice was going to be a gamble.
One of the first places we came across (Makino Tempura) seemed to be a sure thing, the clientele seemed mostly Japanese, there was a queue outside and they specialised in just the one thing. We were sold. After ten minutes wait, and a small bit of miming, we were finally sat inside and having being given the menu to peruse while waiting we knew exactly what we were having. We both went for mixed tempura with cold noodles and a soy dipping sauce. My tempura focused on veggies and seafood, where Bens had a little meat tempura thrown into the mix too and a tempura egg to round things off. As we were sat on the counter we could watch as the chefs sliced, coated and fried the tempura. Because they seemed to batch cook, different items would arrive to us as they were ready rather than all together. The anticipation of waiting to see what would arrive next added to our dining experience. The food itself was insane, the tempura was light and crunchy without any oily tinge, the insides were cooked perfectly and the soy dip was rich without being overwhelmingly salty. It was also way too much, the food seemed to keep on coming and as it was wholly irresistible I practically had to roll myself out of there by the end.
That evening, still full from lunch we decided to skip dinner and head to the free wine and snack event our hotel put on every day between 5pm - 8pm instead. It was never really explained why the hotel provided free wine (and soft drinks) for three hours every day but we (and the other guests) were certainly not complaining. There wasn't really anything to complain about at the Hotel Villa Fontaine at all, and after the hellscape we stayed in at Himeji it seemed like a huge step up!
After a tipple we decided to go for a nighttime walk, and here we messed up. All of the parts of Kobe we'd seen so far had been vibrant and full of life; the cafes and restaurants, shops and arcades, all brightly lit and inviting. I managed to take us away from all of that. A six lane highway, towering apartment blocks and a dimly lit park with no grass, that was where my carefully planned route took us. It was neither charming nor relaxing as a walk but as a commiseration gift we brought some delicious waffles from a station shop, so it wasn't all bad.
The next morning was overcast and gloomy, perfect weather to explore Kobe's Herb Garden and Ropeway and to go for a small hike. Perhaps if we'd had more time we would have pushed this particular activity back but with only one full day left in Kobe we had to make the most of it. Despite promising ourselves we would make better use of public transport to save our poor aching legs, we decided to screw ourselves over and walk the 30 minutes to the Herb Gardens entrance - just a small warm up for the hours of walking ahead of us. Not being completely insane, we brought a ticket for the cablecar that would take us up the mountain to the Herb Garden itself. We would hike down afterwards and didn't think it was necessary to do it both ways in the thirty degree heat.
The herb garden wasn't at all what I was expecting. Firstly and inexplicably, the castle gate plaza where the ropeway alights is designed pulling inspiration from Wartburg Castle, an ancient German Castle from the middle ages. Secondly, it was huge. I had read there was12 gardens but I didn't realise how far they would spread or how unique each one would be. We started at the rose garden at the top of the site then made our way down the mountain, exploring gardens as we went. I particularly liked the "Glasshouse" which was full of tropical plants lining streams that flowed across the floor culminating in a large water feature. The entrance to the glasshouse was filled with different displays all featuring mammoth pumpkins and I couldn't help myself but put on my best witchy impression for a photo or two. Out the back of the Glasshouse, with stunning views over the city far below we came across a free foot spa. With feet already aching we made the most of this, renting small towels for ¥100 and soaking our feet in the fragrant steaming water. I also enjoyed the "Herb Museum" with its collection of a hundred different plants with explanations of their uses in cooking. All in all, it was well worth the ¥1,400 entry fee (this included a one-way ropeway trip).
From the ropeway's mid-station, where the herb garden concludes, a hiking "path" starts that leads back to the city. This was supposed to be straightforward, but we nearly got lost. Earlier, we received a map of the hiking route, but the "map" neglected to mention any of the other roads that exist in reality and the fact that the path we were meant to follow had a "keep out" sign on it. A map we came across as we left the herb garden didn't exactly clear up matters either. If we hadn't spied other walkers in this apparently "forbidden" area we would have continued following a road that led in the opposite direction of civilisation and into a natural area filled with wild boar and bears (at least according to signs we saw).
Once we ignored the keep out signage and opened the gate it was smooth sailing and a very interesting walk. We passed a dam filled with crystal clear water with, waterfalls, rickety ancient looking bridges and a few scattered shrines. It wasn't the most rustic of walks, the moss covered path we followed was concrete the entire way and the path was bordered by fences separating us from the vast nature beyond. It was nice, however, to escape the cityscape if only for a little while. We managed to miss the worst of the weather too, apart from a few scattered spots of rain we stayed relatively dry - if you ignored the inescapable sweat that comes from just existing in Japan.
Once we'd finished our walk through nature, we went for a walk through the city instead. The area of the city we arrived back into was fairly near Kitanocho, another area set aside in the past for foreign residents - this time diplomats. The houses were built in different architectural styles reflecting the origin countries of the people that lived there. Most of the houses were beautiful, the "English house" however I can only describe as having a "run-down pub on a dodgy council estate" aesthetic - at least on the outside. Out of all of the beautiful architectural periods we showcase in the UK, somehow a badly rendered colonial monstrosity is what represents us in Kobe. As intrigued as I was to see how English life is viewed through a Japanised lens I wasn't willing to spend ¥750 to find out. Instead we grabbed ourselves some matcha ice-cream and started the long walk back to our hotel.
That evening we learned the importance of pinning places on google maps. Let me explain. At some point the previous day (while still incredibly full from the tempura) we'd seen a restaurant that sold well priced and yummy looking tuna bowls, and thought to ourselves "Let's go there for dinner tomorrow night". Tomorrow night rolls around and we couldn't find that little restaurant. It wasn't near the station, it wasn't underneath San Plaza, it wasn't anywhere and we were getting hangry. Round and round the same streets we walked, hoping that it would magically appear, our conversation slowly descending into sniping comments. We finally gave up and went to an Indian restaurant instead. We truly believed we had remembered it incorrectly until we stumbled upon it the next morning... less than a minute from our hotel, just in the opposite direction of where we had walked.
Next up : Osaka, Japan
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