Kobe

A coastal city and an important Japanese port, Kobe was one of the first cities to open for trade with the West in 1868 and as a result, the city has a very cosmopolitan mixture of foreign residents from over 100 countries, adding their own stray heritages and cultures to this mixing pot.

The oldest districts of Kobe, the Kitano Ijinkan district and Nankin Machi (China Town) were once foreign settlements started upon Japan’s opening and have since flourished into the city’s urban center with plenty of shopping and dining opportunities such as the Sannomiya Center, Motomachi, and Kokashita shopping streets, or the area around Kobe Harborland.

Nearby Nada is famous for its brewing history that goes all the way back to the Edo Period. In addition to indulging in sake, you can lean how its made in the various reference libraries and museums dedicated to brewing this rice liquor, including an exhibition on the traditional methods of sake brewing and the equipment once used. Some breweries will even let you sample their goods at the end of the tour, if you’re old enough, so a visit over several breweries would yield a sampling of the many different flavors available.

Nudging Kobe is Mount Rokko, originally a vacation resort for those foreigners residing in Kobe. The mountain is now part of the Seto Inland Sea National Park and offers a rich and diverse natural scenery all year round with several hiking paths, ranches, and arboretums. But the real charm of Mount Rokko is its offered view of the urban district and port at its peak, especially at night.

Kobe is also well-known for Arima Hot Spring, the oldest hot spring resort in Japan, dating back to the country’s mythological age. The resort offers three types of springs: their gold spring, which is copper in color, their silver spring, which contains transparent radium water, and a carbonated spring whose water is also ingestible.

A province worth a visit is Hyogo for its grand Himeiji-Jo Castle, or “White Heron Castle,” one of the largest and most well-known remaining 17th-century styled Samurai castles in Japan. It contains 83 buildings well-crafted for defense and designed for both practicality and aesthetics.