Kansai, Japan · City
A historic port city famous for its wagyu beef and its cosmopolitan atmosphere between mountains and sea.
Train — Very close to Osaka by train
Japan's most famous beef, cooked teppanyaki-style right in front of you.
Regarded as one of Japan's three most spectacular night views, overlooking Kobe Bay.
Arima belongs administratively to Kobe and is half an hour from the centre: one of Japan's three oldest hot-spring resorts, cited in eighth-century chronicles, with two distinct waters, the iron-rich gold and the radon silver.
Guided visit along the maintenance walkway to the top of the tower, 300 metres above the strait; it was the longest-span suspension bridge in the world until 2022.
A Tadao Ando building facing the sea, the largest art museum in western Japan, with its giant green apple on the terrace.
European-style residences built by foreign merchants in the 19th century.
Greenhouse where hanging flowers and free-roaming animals share the same space; it works just as well whatever the weather.
Kobe is the city in Japan that spends the most on bread and the one with the highest density of bakeries, an inheritance from the European bakers who arrived when the port opened in 1868.
A December festival of lights featuring illuminated arches, held in memory of the 1995 earthquake.
Japan's first professional jazz band played here in 1923; there are clubs with live music every night, and in October the city holds its street jazz festival.
Immersive reconstruction of the quake that destroyed the city and of how it was rebuilt; in the port a sunken stretch of quay is preserved intact, exactly as it was left.
Rokko is where modern Japanese hiking was born: you cross the range on foot from the city and drop down by ropeway straight into the Arima spa town.
A tour through Nada's historic sake breweries, with a tasting at the Hakutsuru Museum.
Some inns have been lodging pilgrims and lords since the 12th century; Hideyoshi turned Arima into his personal retreat and several houses preserve rooms from that period.
A revitalized waterfront area with modern architecture by the sea.
An 18-metre robot raised in the district worst devastated by the earthquake as a symbol of the reconstruction, in tribute to Yokoyama Mitsuteru, a manga artist born in Kobe.
Narrow slopes with ningyo-fude brushes (which hide a tiny doll revealed when wetted), bamboo basketry and the tansan crackers invented to make use of the town's carbonated water.
A German pastry chef introduced baumkuchen to Japan here, and a local house invented the custom of giving chocolate on Valentine's Day; both are still open.
One of Japan's oldest Shinto shrines, located right in the heart of Kobe.
A real shinkansen cab, motorcycles and a helicopter simulator at the company that built the first bullet train.
The city's great civic festival since 1971, in mid-May, with a samba parade and floats along the main avenue.
Kobe's zoo, featuring a hands-on area with small animals ('Animals' Land') and a small amusement park.
Kobe processes most of Japan's cultured pearls; there are sorting and setting workshops open to visits and a small museum.
Tomb of Kusunoki Masashige, the loyal samurai who fell here in 1336 and was turned for centuries into a national symbol of loyalty.
A kilometre of shopping arcade open since 1874 and the slope of boutiques and cafés running down from the district of Western houses.
Working-class dish born in the okonomiyaki-ya of the Nagata district: yakisoba noodles chopped up and fried with rice on the same griddle.
A small Chinatown with dim sum stalls and street food.
A cable car ride up to an herb garden with views over the city and the sea.
Wooden lattice observatory by Hiroshi Sambuichi and a contemporary art biennial spread across the mountain each autumn.
The old Taisho-era entertainment district and the passages under the tracks at Sannomiya, with vintage clothing and three-table taverns.
The only feudal lord's garden the city still has, with a Western house from 1902 and the cabin of a lordly river boat moved here whole.
The historic urban beach of Kansai, with a ropeway up the hill and a panoramic terrace reopened in 2022.
A 9th-century temple that keeps the flute of the young Atsumori, killed in the 1184 battle that sank the Taira clan and whose setting lies all around.
Vissel won the league after the Iniesta period and plays in a roofed stadium; in November there is a marathon that began as thanks for the help received after the earthquake.
Opened in 1981, it was the world's first fully automated driverless metro; it crosses the bay by way of an artificial island to the airport.
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