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Kobe By Wally Barker. Kobe is a wonderfully urban city of 1.5
million people. However, much of the city is quite rural,
with more than 1/2 of the city's land area protected within a
national park. In Mikage
where we live, the wild boars (inoshishi) come down from the mountains at night and make
havoc with the gardens and the trash. See above picture of Mt Rokkō. The developed area of
Kobe is long and narrow - flanked on one side by mountains and the other by
beautiful ocean. I joking say that Kobe is sort of like what
Malibu California will look like in 200 years, but with the port. Like Malibu's
quick access to Los Angeles, Kobe has fast 20 minute access by train to Osaka - Japan's
second largest city and important trade and cultural center.
Kobe is the capital of Hyogo prefecture (sort of a "state"), a prominent
port, and a great place to live. From my perspective, our city has
the following attributes which make is a super cool place to live.
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Great people and history.
This is Kansai! Cultural and historical heart of Japan.
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213 square miles of other
cool stuff and access to other great areas.
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Rock Climbing up on
Mt Rokkō, the birthplace of modern rock climbing in Japan
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the Kobe Zoo, a
public aquarium, a fish hatchery, the Rokkou-san Bokujō (a working farm
for visitor), the Kobe Fish Market (wild commercial fish auction
from 3:30 AM to 6 AM), nice bathing beaches, ferry to the airport,
the world's largest suspension bridge leading over to rural Awaji Island. (another great place), small winter ski area on Mt
Rokkō (great for kids)
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Numerous intercity weekend
"secret" getaways like Arima Hot Springs in Kobe - this tranquil "onsen" resort area
in set in the beautiful natural surroundings behind Mount
Rokkō and has more than 20 hotels and
Inns.
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International Corporate Base.
Kobe is Asia or Japan headquarters to over 100 international
corporations, including Nestle and Proctor and Gamble. Easy
access to Osaka with many more.
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Diverse Group of Foreign
Ex-Pats & Families. Kobe has perhaps the largest percentage of
ex-patriot families of any city in Japan. There are
concentrations of them, like on "Rokko Island" where there are many
"foreign schools" but most are spread throughout the various
communities within Kobe.
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Good University System.
I attend Japanese language classes at one of them. There are
many and most are very scenic and beautiful.
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Finally, wonderful local
history. Kansai lays claim to 5 of Japan's 13 World Heritage
Sites. Kansai is the eastern terminus of the "silk
road" and was the center of political activity in Japan from
the 6th century BC until 1603, when the first of the Tokugawa Shoguns moved
the government to Edo (later renamed Tokyo). On a more sad note, Kobe is also
among four civil targets within Japan targeted and destroyed by the allied forces in WWII.
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Anyway, welcome to the
Kobe Journal - it is a portal to discovering Kobe.
Other Mainstream Stuff
to Do.
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For spectator sports
minded people, Kobe has a professional baseball team - the Orix
Buffaloes - with a super cool stadium set up at the base of the
mountains in a large park area. For those who like supporting a more
winning team, the Hashin Tigers play in the historic Koshien
Stadium, in nearby Nishinomiya, the site of the Annual National High
School Baseball Tournament, an invitational event that dominates
most of August and is very exciting to watch.
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For history minded folk,
Japan has a rich (and long) history of tradition. There
are numerous annual festivals that can be attended, that provide a
structure framework for ones foray into Japan's History. Below
are some of my favorites.
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47 Ako Samurai or
Rōnin. This Annual Festival, on or about
December 14 of every year, is held in Ako - a modern city and former
castle town of the Ako Daimyo. Anyway, "something" happened in
the early 1700's that was so interesting that it has become folklore,
fictionalized in Japanese Kabuki and television, and the stories
(both real and imagined) are national
treasures. What actually happened and how it happened is sometimes
debated, by historian. However, what is not generally not
debated is as follows: There was a
feudal daimyo from Ako (a coastal town 80 kilometers west from Kobe)
who was in Edo (modern day Tokyo) doing something for the Shogun.
He got into a fight with one of the Shogun's officials there and was
force by the Shogun to commit seppuku. The Shogun also ordered
that Daimyo's 50,000-koku fief at Akô be confiscated and that the
Daimyo's brother be placed under house arrest. Anyway, upon
the written request of the Daimyo's brother, the 60 of the Daimyo's
samurai gaurds "gave up the castle" to the Shogun's general.
Thereafter, 269 of the Daimyos warriors were at that moment,
essentially unemployed. However, being samurais and following the
Bushido code, they plotted their revenge, waited for over a year; went
to Edo; killed the official who had originally dishonored their
Daimyo (causing the mess) and a few days later all committed
seppuku. This really did happen as 46 them are buried along
with
their Daimyo at Sengaku-ji, a famous Sōtō Zen Temple in Tokyo
(Shinagowa area). There is also an historical marker e on
the grounds of the imperial palace at the location where the Ako
Daimyo attacked the Shogun official.
Here are some great block prints of them -
47 Samurai. See link to for visiting
Ako. Also, see <link> For a brief introduction to
religion in Japan
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| Awaji Bridge. On April 5, 1998,
10 years after construction began, the ribbon was cut to open the
world's longest suspension bridge, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan.
The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, also known in Japan as the Pearl Bridge, has a
record main span of 1,991 meters. By comparison, the bridge is 366
meters (almost Ľ mile) longer than the previous record holder, the
StoreBaelt (East Bridge) in Denmark, which was also opened in 1998. The
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is also 580 meters longer than the Humber Bridge in
England, constructed in 1981; 692 meters longer than the longest
suspension bridge in the United States, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in
New York, built in 1964; and 710 meters longer than the Golden Gate
Bridge in San Francisco, constructed in 1937. It cost an estimated
500 billion Japanese yen (U.S. $3.6 billion) to build the bridge.
Construction began in 1988 and involved more than 100 contractors.
http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/julaug98/worlds.htm > |
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