• Japan Guide

  • Introduction to Japan
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore Japan

  • Tokyo
  • Around Tokyo
  • Northern Honshū
  • Hokkaidō
  • Central Honshū
  • Kyoto
  • Nara
  • Kansai
  • Western Honshū
  • Shikoku
  • Kyūshū
  • Okinawa

• Cities

  • Aizu-Wakamatsu
    
  • Akita
    
  • Aomori
    
  • Fukuoka
    
  • Hakodate
    
  • Hirosaki
    
  • Hiroshima
    
  • Kōbe
    
  • Kagoshima
    
  • Kakunodate
    
  • Kanazawa
    
  • Kumamoto
    
  • Kyoto
    
  • Matsue
    
  • Matsumoto
    
  • Matsuyama
    
  • Miyazaki
    
  • Nagano
    
  • Nagasaki
    
  • Nagoya
    
  • Naha
    
  • Nara
    
  • Narita
    
  • Niigata
    
  • Okayama
    
  • Ōsaka
    
  • Sapporo
    
  • Sendai
    
  • Shimonoseki
    
  • Takamatsu
    
  • Tokushima
    
  • Tokyo
    
  • Yamagata
    
  • Yamaguchi
    
  • Yokohama
    

Japan Guide

Kansai

Kōbe

• Accommodation
• Eating
• Nightlife

A historic port and distinct city in its own right, KŌBE, the capital of Hyōgo-ken, now seems more like a fashionable western suburb of sprawling Ōsaka. Kōbe's cosmopolitan atmosphere, great range of food and dramatic location on a sliver of land between the sea and Rokkō-san are the main reasons to visit this friendly harbourside city. Although Kōbe has almost totally recovered from the 1995 earthquake, it has far from forgotten this horrific event – the oddly named Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution documents the quake and its aftermath. The Kōbe City Museum, covering the port's earlier illustrious history, is also worth a look, as is the space-age Fashion Museum on the man-made Rokkō Island, east of the city harbour.