Thursday, March 10, 2011

Kobe free and easy

Kobe city is part of Hyogo prefecture. Kobe is a prominent city which the sixth biggest city in Japan. Previously, this place was known by Owada Anchorage. However, Kobe was formed after 1889. Kobe was opened trade with "West" countries. Thus, there are a lot of old western style building around the city now-a-day.


Anyway, you can take JR line and stop at "Sannomiya" station which is the nearest to walk around in Kobe city. Around the Kobe city, there were a lot of information tourist center. One of the center is located just outside the Sannomiya station. You can get a map from them. They were helpful to us. Anyway, the map is very detail enough. =)







One horrible disaster had affected Kobe city. This is called as Kobe earthquake a.k.a Great Hanshin Earthquake was happened January 17th, 1995 at 05:46 JST. Furthermore, the earthquake magnitude scale was 7.3. This disaster caused about 6000 people lost their lives.





About 5 minutes walks from Sannomiya stations, there is Kobe Memorial Monument to memorise this incidence. Every year December, light festival which called as Kobe Luminaries will be held to memory scarify victims and reconstruct the city. Kobe Luminaries Official Website: www.kobe-luminaria.jp.





This is a port. Definitely, there were a lot of foreigners around in this city in the olden time. In this city, you can realise the building construction was more likely to Western style compared to another prefecture especially in Old Foreign Settlement. I felt this streets were quite even though there were a lot of shops around.




This big fish was located at Meriken Park. According to my friend, he said this was a production from a well known Japanese Artist production.





Meriken Park is Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park which was destructed by Kobe earthquake. However, this is a famous travel spot now. Moreover, this is a beautiful waterfront park in Kobe. You can have wonderful and busy sea view at this park.



I not sure what is this for. But, I think this is an interesting building structure that built near the seaside. This is one of the famous building here.





Around the Meriken Park, a red tall ironic tower which called as Kobe Tower was built. This is 108 meters high. The tower is opened for tourists to visit with each entrance fee is 600 yen.






Beside the Meriken Park, you can ride the ship to have a better view of this port. I not sure the fees for each ride. Anyway, there are few types of ship you can choose to ride such as Royal Princess, Ocean Prince, Villaggio Italia, and Fantasy.






Even though there were a lot of people walking around this port, a lot of birds still staying there too.




Another 5 minutes walk from Meriken park, there were a lot of shopping center, amusement part and restaurants which called as Harbourland. For instance, those shopping center are Konan, Mosaic, Kobe Hankyu Department store, Ha-re and etc. In December, everywhere had a lot of Christmas decoration and Santa Clauses was coming to this town as well.





One of the landmark in Harbourland is Ferris wheel at the small amusement park of Mosaic.




Next attraction in Kobe is Nankinmachi which normally known as Chinatown. Along this streets were decorated with a lot of red "tang lung". Basically, there were a lot of Chinese restaurants.






Another interesting attraction in Kobe city is Kitano-cho. In this area, a lot of houses which opened as museum to introduce the olden time of Kobe. Those museums are Moegi House, Kazamidori-no-Yakata, American Teddy Bear Museum, Kobe Kitano Museums and a lot more. Each museum has to pay entrance fee. Hmm ... I think this is impossible to visit all museum because this might be cos a lot of money. Anyway, you still can snap a lot of wonderful photos surrounding this Kitano even though you are not enter into the museum.


This house is called as Kazamidori-no-Yakata a.k.a Weathercrock House. This was an old resident by Thomas who was German architect. Furthermore, this is free entrance fee. Anyway, this was a double stories house was built in 1909. You can enjoy the ancient living style in Kobe. (*^_^*)



~bye bye Kobe ~

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