Kobe

Today was meant to be a sea day, but somehow they managed to rejig the schedule to allow us a full day in Kobe instead. There were no official tours organised, so we headed off on our own to explore the city. Kobe is an important port city, and the 7th largest city in Japan.

Merikan Park

Our ship was docked close to Meriken Park, so that was our first destination. A grassy waterfront park, it contains a number of art installations and street art, as well as some significant exhibition spaces including the Kobe Maritime Museum and Kawasaki Good Times World (which we did not have time to visit). The large fish (“Fish Dance” by Frank Gehry) was a standout. The name of the park comes from the word “American,” which was commonly translated as “Meriken” during the Meiji era, as the US consulate was located here. While we were there an emergency message (in Japanese) was broadcast to all our phones, while a siren sounded. Fortunately, Google Translate was able to tell us it was just a drill, but it was a bit scary all the same!

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KOBE earthquake memorial

Meriken Park is the location of a memorial to the massive earthquake of 1995 which devastated Kobe. A series of wall panels and some videos tell the story of the earthquake and the subsequent recovery, and a small part of the original port has been left to illustrate the level of damage. A plaque reads: “Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park was constructed as a reminder of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that devastated the southern part of Hyogo Prefecture. It hit the area at 5:46 a.m. on January 17, 1995, causing as many as 40,071 casualties, destroying 247,486 homes and buildings. The victims of the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the area amounted to 444,900 households. The memorial park is meant to be evidence of the calamitous earthquake, preserving part of Meriken Park as it was immediately after the severe quake. Together with its exhibits, the park illustrates the restoration process of the Port of Kobe. It serves as a painful lesson as well as a vivid reminder of the important role the port played in the aftermath. It is also a tribute to the patience and dedication of all the people from all over the country and overseas who worked to restore and reconstruct the port. “

KOBE PORT TOWER

Also part of Meriken Park is Kobe Port Tower, a landmark of the city. Of course, we had to go up and see the view from the observation deck. We could see our ship, the Coral Geographer at the dock – as you can see we haven’t ventured far afield yet, but that’s about to change.

Nunobiki Ropeway & Herb GardenS

The Nunobiki Herb Gardens are Japan’s largest herb gardens with around 75,000 herbs and flowers of about 200 kinds blooming throughout the year. With 12 landscape gardens cascading down the hillside there’s lots to see, as well as panoramic views over the city itself.

We caught the ropeway up to the top and walked down the fairly steep slopes as far as the mid station, then took the ropeway back to the base. We were excited to see lots of autumn colours as well as catching a view of the Nunobiki Waterfall and the city of Kobe from the cable car.

This is a very small selection of the many, many photos we took in the gardens. We stopped for a quick lunch at the “Welcome Garden”, which is modelled after Germany’s Wartburg Castle, and was getting ready for Christmas. We also enjoyed a local specialty – lavender ice-cream. We were pleasantly surprised at the profusion and variety of flowers at this time of year.

The massive glasshouses include various tropical plants, and some fanciful displays of rooms overflowing with herbs.

Views of the city of Kobe could be seen and we even spotted the Coral Geographer from up there – and later realised we could make out the greenhouses from the deck of the ship.

Back on Board

We headed back to the ship for an origami lesson with Hide (pronounced Hee-day), one of our Japanese guides. We learned how to make paper cranes, which were collected up to leave as a small tribute at the memorial in Hiroshima, where we will be in a few days. Then we enjoyed a wine tasting, with our charming head purser, Manfred.

This post is getting very long! If you are still reading, hang in there – we’re nearly done!

Dinner in the city

After the wine tasting, we decided we couldn’t spend a day in Kobe without trying some of the famous Kobe beef. We passed lots of restaurants advertising the beef, and finally found one with a free table. The beef was delicious, but the prices were quite eye-watering, so we chose the cheapest option, a set menu probably designed for tourists. It was delicious though. Then we walked through Chinatown, which we had passed in a bus earlier. It was lively and colourful, as were the very sparkly Christmas lights we walked through on the way back to the ship at the end of a long but very enjoyable day.