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Kobe By Wally Barker. Kobe is a wonderfully urban city of 1.5
million people. However because the city is very large, (213
square miles), the overall density is actually quite low. There
are the developed areas, but most of the city is quite
wild and rural,
with more than 1/2 of the city's land area is 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 one of the
busiest ports in the world. 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 like a USA "state"
or French prefecture), 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.
Kobe is part of historic Kansai! Cultural and historical heart of Japan.
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213 square miles of 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 (up on the Mt Rokkō
plateau) - this tranquil "onsen" (hot springs) resort area
in set in the beautiful natural surroundings 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 "Rokkō 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. There is also a
good "International
Schools" for children such as the Canadian Academy.
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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).
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On more sad notes,
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Kobe is one of four
civilian targets within Japan that were targeted and destroyed by
the allied forces during WWII. An important note is that Kobe
is the setting for Isao Takahata's revered anime "Hotaru no Haka"
which depicts this tragic but true tale of the US bombing of Kobe in
1945. Personally, I think this is the most profoundly sad
movie I have ever seen and among one of the most powerful anti-war
movies ever made. Seeing this amime is one of the first
stop for those interests in understanding the magnitude of the
suffering experience within Japan as a result of US war strategy.
This anime (a national treasury) is shown on TV every year in early
august, on dates that interestingly coincide with anniversaries of
the two atomic bombing of Japan. In my opinion, the annual
showing of this anime movie Japan's understated way of drawing
attention to the horrors of what was done to civilian by US and
allied forces. It would not be Japanese to complain openly, so
they show it in a animated story and abstract it even more.
Personally, I wish more attention were brought to theses issue.
There are many valuable lessons here.
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Kobe the site of much of
the damage and death caused by the of the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
(7.2 Richter Scale) that killed 6,433. My wife went to sleep
on the second floor of the house and woke up on the first floor
(Amazingly, no one in the house was injured.) To to
commemorate the dead and celebrate Kobe's recovery from the 1995
quake, the city holds an annual event called the Luminarie.
It is held every December and "the streets of downtown" decorated with
illuminated metal archways. Thousands turn out for this
event every year and it really a powerful thing to see.
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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 historians. 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 guards "gave up the castle" to the Shogun's general.
Thereafter, 269 of the Daimyo's warriors were at that moment "Ronin"
- masterless samurai, 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 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 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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Kobe - Random Historical Notes
1180 -- Former Capital. Kobe
was briefly the capital of Japan in 1180 A.D. at the end of the
Heian period. Taira no Kiyomori moved his grandson Emperor
Antoku to Fukuhara. The exact location is uncertain, but
is probably the neighborhood of the same name in Hyogo-ku.
The Emperor returned to Kyoto after about five months.
1945 -- "B-Ni-Jyu-Ku"
During the course of World War II, Kobe was bombed by 331 B-29
bombers on March 17th, 1945, killing over 8,000 residents and
burning the city into black ashes.
1975 -- Kobe Formula.
Following continuous pressure from citizens, on March 18, 1975,
the Kobe City Council passed an ordinance banning vessels
carrying nuclear weapons from Kobe Port. This effectively
prevented any U.S. warships from entering the port, policy being
not to disclose whether any warship is carrying nuclear weapons.
This nonproliferation policy has been termed the "Kobe Formula".
1995 -- Great Hanshin Earthquake or
the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Early in the morning, at
05:46am JST, on January 17, 1995 an earthquake measured at 7.2
on the Richter Scale hit the city, killing 6,433, making 300,000
homeless and destroying large parts of the port facilities and
other parts of the city. Said to be the "one of the most
costly natural disasters in modern history". The earthquake
notably destroyed the Hanshin Expressway, an elevated freeway
which dramatically toppled over.
Port Activity Prior to the
Great Hanshin Earthquake, Kobe was the busiest port in Asia and
the second busiest port in the world. Since
then, the port of Yokohama became Japan's busiest port. By
2002, Kobe's world ranking has dropped down to the twenty-ninth
busiest port in the world. Kobe has, however, recovered to
become Japan's third busiest port.
Luminarie To
commemorate the dead and celebrate Kobe's recovery from the 1995
quake, the city holds an annual event called the Luminarie.
It is held every December and "the streets of downtown" decorated with
illuminated metal archways. Thousands turn out for this event
every year and it really a powerful thing to see.
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http://hikoma.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/en/area.html |