While having a few drinks and appetizers in the hotel lounge, I looked at a Kobe guidebook. It mentioned that there are many western houses that are popular with Japanese tourists, but that the only place worth seeing is this shrine. Here are a few pictures:
We were quite disappointed to be honest. Perhaps because we live in Japan, we are jaded tourists? Near this shrine is Urako House. Urako House is a popular site for Japanese tourists. Apparently it was originally a rental house for wealthy foreigners. The entry for this museum is 1,000 so we decided to pass on it. However, we took this picture at the entrance:
Impressive isn’t it?
It was quite hot so I decided to take a break with this statue of a shirtless man playing a saxophone.
What were they thinking when they put this statue here?
Finally we visited the harbour. Here is a picture of Port Tower and the Kobe Maritime Museum. (The trusty cynical guide book stated that the outside of the museum was the most interesting part. We questioned this but we didn’t have time to see for ourselves).
We also saw this life-sized replica of the Santa Maria, one of Columbus’ ships.
Why this replica is in Kobe beats me.
Finally, this is the famous? cafe* Fish!
I wonder why it is called cafe* Fish!? and why is there an asterisk in the name? It was closed because of a private function so we couldn’t find out why. 😉
Lots of places to see in Kobe – to see everything, you’ll need at least 2 full days. Maybe we’ll have a chance to go again sometime.
