Kobe Day Trip

Kobe is the elegant, outward-looking port city that sits between the mountains and the sea just west of Osaka, and it makes a relaxed, very different day trip. When Japan reopened to the world in the 1860s, Kobe was one of the first ports opened to foreign trade, and merchants from Europe, America and China settled here, leaving a cosmopolitan character the city has never lost. On the slopes of Kitano, above Sannomiya, their Ijinkan, the foreigners' houses, still stand: grand wooden and brick mansions with verandas, bay windows and gardens, a number of them open as museums, including the Weathercock House with its rooster vane. Down at the water, the waterfront of Meriken Park and Harborland is Kobe's showpiece, with the red latticed Kobe Port Tower, the white sails of the Maritime Museum roof, a Ferris wheel, brick warehouses turned into restaurants and the Mediterranean-style shopping streets of Harborland; the Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park preserves a twisted section of quayside left as it was after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, which devastated the city and from which it rebuilt itself. Nankinmachi, Kobe's Chinatown, is a lively few blocks of steamed buns and dumplings. Above the city, the Shin-Kobe Ropeway rises to the Nunobiki herb gardens, and the Rokko mountains offer views over the bay; on the far side lies Arima Onsen, one of Japan's oldest hot-spring towns. And there is the beef: Kobe beef, a strictly certified wagyu from Hyogo prefecture, famous for its marbling and often cooked on a teppan griddle in front of you.

Getting to Kobe from Osaka is easy and cheap. JR Special Rapid trains run from Osaka Station to Sannomiya, Kobe's downtown hub, in around twenty minutes, and the private Hankyu and Hanshin lines run from Umeda to Kobe-Sannomiya in about half an hour; Shin-Kobe, at the foot of the mountains, is on the Shinkansen line. Kobe is compact, and a classic day runs from Kitano in the morning, a fifteen-minute uphill walk from Sannomiya, through the Motomachi shopping arcades and Nankinmachi for lunch, to the waterfront in the afternoon and Harborland as the lights come on. The views of the illuminated port tower and harbor after dark are the city's best, and the night view from the Rokko mountains is famous across Japan.

Kobe beef deserves a word of honesty. Genuine Kobe beef comes only from certified Tajima cattle raised in Hyogo, and restaurants that serve it display a certificate and often the animal's identification number. It is expensive, especially at dinner, and many restaurants offer set lunches that are a much better value way to try it. Be wary of cheap Kobe beef offers in the tourist streets, which may be other wagyu. Booking ahead is wise at the well-known teppanyaki restaurants, especially for weekend dinners.

Kobe pairs perfectly with Himeji Castle, which is further along the same JR line, so a morning at the castle followed by an afternoon in Kobe and a beef dinner makes one of the best full days you can have from Osaka. If you prefer a slower pace, combine Kobe with Arima Onsen instead, about thirty minutes by train and bus over the mountains, for an afternoon soak in its famous rust-colored gold-spring water. The link here is to the official VISIT KOBE travel guide, which has current information on attractions, events and transport.