Kobe

NOTES FROM KOBE

Amazing Kobe

A short 4-day trip to Kobe

Why Kobe?

You know, on our last Osaka trip, at our last dinner in Osaka, we ate at a ramen shop where some Vietnamese people work. They asked us if we had visited Kobe. We hadn't, even though we stayed in Osaka for 6 days and really tried our best to find places to visit and have fun. Not only Kobe but also Nara weren't on our list, hahaha. When they asked us, we were like, "WHATTTT?"

That was the reason we wanted to visit Kobe on our next Japan trip, and yup, we made it!

Stories

After arriving at KIX, we took a bus directly to Kobe Sannomiya Station. It took about 1.5 hours. I also shared a blog post about how to get to Kobe from KIX, so feel free to check that out!

First day

The first day was pretty fine. We managed to find some coin lockers and stored our luggage, then explored around Kobe Sannomiya Station, even though we were so sleepy. Our flight from SGN to KIX started at 1 AM, and honestly, I'm not someone who can easily sleep on a plane or bus. It was a pretty chill noon. We found a place for coffee (we found it on Google Maps because they have cats in the coffee shop, but unfortunately, when we came, the cats were sleeping somewhere), then lunch, then another coffee. We just tried to pass the time until 4 PM so we could get our room and have some rest before dinner.

Once we got our room, we slept a bit, then went to Kobe City Hall to see the whole city. It's free and not really crowded, but although I admit it's pretty boring, haha. Then we walked around the streets near Kobe City Hall and found a ramen shop for dinner. After that, we stopped by Lawson to buy some water and other things, then went back to our room to rest early, because we hadn't slept much before.

Second day

We tried to wake up early to try Dorsia Coffee. (Yesterday, when we arrived, there was a long line, so we went to the other cat coffee shop instead.) And yummy, I finally got pancakes and a café au lait. My wife got a grilled cheese toast and iced tea.

Then we went to Sannomiya and took a train to Kobe Nunobiki Herb Garden. It wasn't crowded, but a lot of people were there. You need to take a ropeway to the top of the mountain. From there, we just walked around, took pictures, looked at the flowers, and then walked slowly from the top to the bottom. I really liked the place. It was nice, the air was fresh, and the flowers were great.

If I remember correctly, we didn't have lunch, so we decided to visit FamilyMart or Lawson to pick up something quick to eat, then have an early dinner. So for dinner, we had grilled meat next to our place. It was pretty nice and good value for the price. It was Kobe beef. After dinner, we went to Chinatown. Man, Chinatown at night was quiet. There weren't many people, haha, and most shops were closed.

Then we headed back to our room and rested!

Third day

On this day, I planned to take the Rokko Cable Car to go to Mt. Rokko. However, I used the wrong location and got on the wrong bus, so we ended up at Maya Cable, and it was closed. OMG!

The original plan was to go to Mt. Rokko, then walk to the next cable car to go to Arima, but everything failed. So we went back to Chinatown. In the morning and at noon, there were many people there, so it was pretty fun!

Then we headed to Kobe Harborland to have lunch, see the tower, enjoy the Ferris wheel, and call it a day.