Kobe

The old foreign quarter, about 15 minutes uphill from Sannomiya Station, where the red-brick Weathercock House, built in 1909 for a German trader, is an Important Cultural Property. Each house charges separately, so a combination ticket pays off for several.

Chinatown, south of Motomachi Station: a few hundred metres of stalls to graze along. People eat on the seats around the central square's pavilion, and at Lunar New Year the Shunsetsu festival sends dragon and lion dances through the streets.

A red tower woven in a hyperboloid lattice, which reopened in 2024 after renovation with a new open-air rooftop deck at the top. Strong wind sometimes shuts just the rooftop, and after dark the whole tower glows.

A stretch of quay wrecked in the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, left unrepaired as a memorial, with tilted lamp posts and a split seawall still in place. The BE KOBE letters stand on the waterfront next door, and a queue forms for photos.

A lookout on Mount Maya where the lights run along Osaka Bay from Kobe to Osaka, the so-called ten-million-dollar night view. You go up by cable car and then ropeway, and the last car down changes with the weekday, so check it before heading up.

One of Japan's oldest hot springs, with two kinds of water: the rust-brown kinsen, coloured by iron and salt, and the clear ginsen. The public baths Kin-no-yu and Gin-no-yu stand apart on the hillside lanes, and the bus from Sannomiya takes about 30 minutes.

A waterfall about 20 minutes up a mountain path behind Shin-Kobe Station, a surprise of forest right behind a shinkansen stop. Of its four tiers the largest, Odaki, is 43m high, and climbing further links up with the herb garden ropeway station.

An ancient shrine in the heart of busy Sannomiya, whose kanbe, the households bound to serve it, gave Kobe its name. The Ikuta woods behind the main hall cut the city noise within a few steps, and as a matchmaking shrine it hosts frequent weddings.

A 3,911m suspension bridge opened in 1998, linking Kobe with Awaji Island. From the Maiko Marine Promenade under the deck you look down at the sea through a glass floor, and tours to the top of a main tower run on booking, on set dates.

The collective name for five old brewing districts along Kobe's eastern shore, one of Japan's foremost sake regions. Miyamizu, the groundwater from the Rokko mountains, is credited for its taste, and several breweries run museums with tastings.

Forty minutes from Sannomiya by JR special rapid, Himeji's castle made Japan's debut World Heritage roster in 1993 alongside Horyu-ji. Repairs ending in 2015 left its plaster bright white. Shoes come off for six floors of steep stairs, so travel light.

The 900-odd-metre ridge behind the city. A cable car climbs to Rokko Garden Terrace and its view over Osaka Bay. Foreign residents spent their summers up here, and Japan's first golf course opened on top in 1903. August evenings there still call for a jacket.

Herb gardens on a slope, ten minutes up by ropeway from beside Shin-Kobe Station, the port spread out beneath the glasshouse at the top. The beds follow the hill, so ride to the summit and stroll down to the halfway station to spare your legs.

Waterfront shops on an old freight yard south of Kobe Station, with red-brick warehouses and a big wheel on the quay. The Mosaic mall's upper wooden deck faces Port Tower and the Maritime Museum, and fills up as the illuminations start at dusk.

A stroll garden near the prefectural office north of Motomachi, laid out in the Meiji era by the Kodera family, who gave Kobe a mayor. The Hassam house, moved from Kitano, stands inside with the old stables, so Western roofs rise behind the pond.

Tadao Ando's bare-concrete museum, opened by the sea in 2002 and threaded by a round stair and long passages. Ando's giant green apple sits on the seaward terrace, and many come to walk the building without buying an exhibition ticket.

A museum beside the art museum recording the Hanshin-Awaji quake. Its first theatre recreates the city collapsing on a huge screen. Donated objects and filmed testimony follow, and some volunteer guides lived through it and will tell their story.

A shrine north of Kobe Station for Kusunoki Masashige, the fourteenth-century warrior locals call Nanko-san. His grave marks where he is said to have fallen in battle. It ranks among Kobe's busiest at New Year, with lines from the station.

An aquarium opened in 2024 where the old one stood beside Suma Beach, the only place in western Japan to see orcas. The front rows at the orca show get soaked, so buy a poncho; the beach starts right outside the gate.