Hello there! It's my 13th post in the new World Map Pin community! Trying to do the tag as well! If you haven't read about them, please take a look at this link.
As background, I have done a few overseas trips last year, as some of my friends here would know, and I have been wanting to share some of the interesting places that I have visited. However, life has been busy and I have been procrastinating penning these entries and recently, I revisited this target of mine and finally broke the inertia!
One of my memorable trips in 2023 was to Tokyo, Japan, and during that trip, I did quite a few day trips to nearby cities and towns. This included trips to Karuizawa, Atami, Nikko, Kamakura, of course, Tokyo itself.
In 2024, which was earlier this year, I was back at Japan once more. This time, it was to Osaka, Japan. After a trip to Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Kyoto and Nara, we next visited Kobe!
As always, to everyone who is reading, thanks for all the positive comments of my previous post! It really amazed me how the Hive community and Worldmappin community were so encouraging with my travel sharings. And it meant a lot to me - whether it's in the form of comments, reblogs, or upvotes. Thanks for all the engagement and appreciation!
We spent one of our days at Kobe, which was not too far from Osaka as well. We started our day shopping at Kobe Harborland, followed by a relaxing onsen session, before we kickstarted our sightseeing in this city.
First up was the Kobe Port Tower! Personally, everytime when I visit a nice place, I like to go up their towers and observatories because I get to see a bird's eye view of the entire city. Every city has its unique scenery, be it waters, mountains, buildings, parks, and roads, etc. As you can see, the sky is an awesome blue colour so I was pretty sure my photos will be great that day!
Here's a photo from outside the Kobe Port Tower!
This is the standard map of the tower. It's not very high, but because the surrounding buildings were not very tall (Japan is an earthquake prone area), the sights were good enough.
These were the photos that I had taken. Hope you enjoy them!
Kobe is also a port so you can see the port operations, cruise terminals and an interesting "anchor" symbol (can you spot it?) near the edge of the waters.
There's also a Starbucks near the foot of the tower, which is a nice place for tourists to chill too! The whole place just felt very calm and peaceful because it was not as touristy as some of the earlier attractions that we went.
We also noticed everyone queueing to take photo of this "Be Kobe" logo/structure, so we joined in the fun as well. It's probably a location for people to "prove" that they have been to Kobe. Haha.
Of course, one definitely has to try Kobe Beef when one is at Kobe! Kobe beef is probably the most expensive beef in this world, even more expensive than Wagyu and Angus beef. This was the price of the Kobe beef at one of the eateries. I was surprised that there were so many different grades, and the price range was very huge. The cheapest one was 1,500 JPY (10 USD), and the most expensive one was 8,500 JPY (57 USD), and it's only for 60g.
Even though it was a once in a lifetime experience, I still didn't feel like spending so much money since I was not sure whether I could appreciate or taste the difference. So I ordered the first two - the 1,500 JPY and 2,500 JPY, and here's how it looked. 60g of meat definitely wasn't a lot. I think the difference is the tenderness of the meat because it's from a different part. To be honest, it was nice but I definitely would not pay so much for this experience again. A good steak or cheeseburger is good enough for me anyday. Lol!
We walked around further to try some of the local snacks before it was time to head back to Osaka. So that's all for my Kobe day trip!
Have you been to Kobe? Let me know in the comments if you have been here too, and what are your thoughts about this place?
Finally, thanks for reading my post in the community under World Map Pin! More to come I promise! :)
P.S. I have also tried to document my posts in one table so it's easy to reference too!
| My Japan Trip | |
|---|---|
| Visiting The Peaceful Karuizawa | Link |
| Admiring The Scenic Atami (Part 1) | Link |
| Admiring The Scenic Atami (Part 2) | Link |
| Enjoying The Nature In Nikko (Part 1) | Link |
| Enjoying The Nature In Nikko (Part 2) | Link |
| Enjoying The Nature In Nikko (Part 3) | Link |
| Experiencing The Zen Kamakura | Link |
| Exploring The Magical Harry Potter Studio Tour (Part 1) | Link |
| Exploring The Magical Harry Potter Studio Tour (Part 2) | Link |
| Exploring The Magical Harry Potter Studio Tour (Part 3) | Link |
| Exploring The Magical Harry Potter Studio Tour (Part 4) | Link |
| Exploring The Magical Harry Potter Studio Tour (Part 5) | Link |
| A Trip To Arashiyama Bamboo Forest And More! | Link |
| Visiting The Kyoto Attractions | Link |
| Feeding Deer And More At Nara! | Link |