JPN: Kobe Downtown

Kobe, Hyogo, Japan

Kobe is the capital city of Hyogo Prefecture, which is also the seventh largest city in Japan. It didn't exist in its current form until its founding in 1889. It's home to the headquarters of several prominent companies, such as ASICS and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, as well as over 100 international corporations with Asian headquarters, such as Nestlé and Procter & Gamble.


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On the first day when my BFFs and I reached Kobe, after checking in at Hotel Sunroute Sopra Kobe, we went to the area near Sannomiya railway station to have dinner.


That was my first time seeing a ¥50 (~S$0.65) drinks vending machine.


I finally tried Yoshinoya in Japan last year.

The next morning, after enjoying the view of the city from Kobe City Hall Observation Deck, we went to Kobe East Park.

Japan held its first ever marathon on 21 March 1909.
 

1.17 Light of Hope is an eternal flame commemorating those who perished
in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
 

There's an underground walkway that leads to a memorial that lists the name of the victims of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.

There are quite a number of photos pasted on the walls along the walkway.


The smell of burning corpses was beyond words...


Close to 6,500 people lost their lives due to the earthquake.


We were glad to witness Kobe Luminarie 2019.



Here are some photos that I took when we made our way to Meriken Park.


Maintaining this blog allows me to keep walking down the memory lane.



I saw quite a number of people stopping by to pray at that small shrine.
The Port of Kobe was Japan's busiest port until the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake struck. It has since dropped to the fourth place in the country.





Don't you love the autumn colours?
After spending some time at Nankinmachi, we checked out Kobe Motomachi, a bustling shopping street that was formed in 1874.



Stretching over 1.2 km, the shopping street houses around 300 establishments.


Have you been to an owl café before?



That must be a very famous bakery, given the number of locals queueing there.


Below are what I saw along the way to Kobe Anpanman Children’s Museum and Mall.


This is random, but I used to teach a student named Zara.
Hello, Zara, if you happen to see this!



I love pancakes. Do you?


Enjoy the view after dark.

Mosaic is a large waterfront mall.


Kobe is a home port for certain cruise lines, such as Princess Cruise Line and Holland America Line.

I took one photo of the interior of the train that we took to go to Kobe Oji Zoo.


We ended up near Sannomiya railway station again after going down from Mount Rokko by Rokko Cable Car.



That's an underground maze full of eateries.
We passed by a taiyaki (Japanese sea bream-shaped cake) stall. Of course, we couldn't resist the temptation and bought a few to try. They were delicious.



In a blink of an eye, it was our last full day in Japan.



Browsing Japanese books and novels at Kinokuniya~
We made our way to a restaurant of choice for Kobe beef.

Did you know that Don Quijote is called Don Don Donki in Singapore because there's a
local restaurant called Don Quijote located at Dempsey Road?

I wonder if that building houses a company selling pipe organs.

We certainly had a memorable lunch at Sai Dining.



Sai Dining is among the few popular Kobe beef restaurants that has previously won awards.


Besides the amazing Kobe beef, I was truly amazed by the freshness of the vegetables.


Look at that pillar of fire!
Take a look at the following video clips of the chef in action.



Ikuta Shrine is the last place that we visited in Kobe.


The Shinto shrine is among the oldest in the country.
 


Ushering in the Year of the Rat, which has been crazy thus far~
If you haven't, don't forget to check out my food blog for these posts:
- Bao Bao (Japanese)
- Yoshinoya (Japanese)
- Nankinmachi (Japanese and Chinese)
- Sai Dining (Japanese and Western)

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