Kobe, worth knowing.

Fun facts about Kobe

1. 1Kobe's Akashi Kaikyo Bridge was stretched by an earthquake. The 1995 quake moved its two towers while it was being built, so the main span ended up about 1 metre longer.Source: Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway Co.; Wikipedia
2. 2Kobe is where Japan first got golf and jazz. The Kobe Golf Club opened on Mount Rokko in 1903, and Japan's first professional jazz band, the Laughing Stars, formed here in 1923.Source: City of Kobe; Visit Kobe
3. 3How to spot real Kobe beef: shops and restaurants in the Kobe Beef association display a little bronze cow statue and their registration certificate out front.Source: Kobe Beef Marketing & Distribution Promotion Association; Food in Japan
4. 4The Nada area of Kobe is Japan's biggest sake-brewing region. Its five old brewing villages make over a quarter of all Japan's sake, using spring water that flows down from the Rokko mountains.Source: Japan National Tourism Organization; Visit Kobe
5. 5Himeji Castle, an easy day trip from Kobe, came through WWII when much of the city around it burned. A bomb that hit the castle simply failed to explode.Source: World History Encyclopedia; Wikipedia
6. 6In Kinosaki Onsen, the oldest bathhouse, Kono-yu, sits where legend says a stork was found soaking its wounds in the hot spring. That's how the water was discovered.Source: Visit Kinosaki; japan-guide.com

Things to do in Kobe

• ◦Walk Nada, Kobe's old sake district, where historic brewers run their own small museums. Stop by one for a tour and a taste.Source: Japan National Tourism Organization; Visit Kobe
• ◦Wander up to Kitano, the hillside quarter of old foreign merchants' houses. Its symbol is the Weathercock House, a 1909 German trader's home and the only red-brick one, with a rooster on the spire.Source: Visit Hyogo; Weathercock House
• ◦Kobe Port Tower is a red tower shaped like a Japanese tsuzumi drum. Since reopening in 2024 it has a rooftop deck, plus a cafe floor that slowly turns while you take in the harbour.Source: City of Kobe; Wikipedia
• ◦Himeji Castle is nicknamed the White Heron for its gleaming white walls, like a bird spreading its wings. The paths up to the keep wind on purpose, built to confuse intruders.Source: Himeji Convention & Visitors Bureau; Wikipedia
• ◦Bath-hop in Kinosaki Onsen: put on the yukata and wooden geta from your inn and stroll between the town's seven public bathhouses. Ryokan guests get a pass for all of them.Source: japan-guide.com; Visit Kinosaki
• ◦Arima Onsen, a short trip from central Kobe, has 'gold' water that turns red-brown and clear 'silver' water. Dip your feet in the foot bath outside Kin no Yu and snack on crisp tansan senbei.Source: Visit Hyogo; GLTJP

Questions to bring to Kobe

From Sojourn's journeys. Ask one over a long dinner or on a slow walk, and let the place do some of the work.

Going together

• When do you feel most like yourself?
• What does rest actually look like for you?
• What is one thing you wish we did more of?

Going solo

• What is the first thing this place is showing you that you didn't expect?
• What does this version of you know that the home version tends to forget?

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