Nature And The City

My accommodation in Kobe seemed to be the only place in the area that didn’t have velvet-covered walls and rooms that charged by the hour. At night the area was filled with brightly lit neon signs and tall women standing out the front of nightclubs. I was in Sannomiya, Kobe’s beating heart, with shopping streets spread in all directions, bars on the top floors of ten-story buildings and restaurants in the lower basements of metro stations and department stores. Throughout the day and night the streets were packed with travellers and locals navigating the chaos.

Just down from Sannomiya, in Motomachi, was Kobe’s vibrant Chinatown with bright, ruby-red buildings lining the streetscape and the scent of red bean-filled sesame balls frying. Chinatown was emblematic of the international port city that Kobe was and continues to be. Just up the hill from Sannomiya was the area of Kitano-cho. A former neighbourhood for foreign merchants, the area was filled with grandiose European-style houses and mansions. ‘England House,’ ‘Austria House,’‘France House’ and the like gave visitors a peek into the antiquated existence of foreign elites that used to live in Kobe. Sannomiya sat in between Chinatown and ‘Eurotown,’ straddling Kobe’s merchant history all while maintaining a distinctly Japanese urban feel.

But it wasn’t all tall buildings and the urban city hustle and bustle. A short, twenty minute walk from where I was staying dropped me straight into nature. Walking on a short road under Shin-Kobe station, past the office of a rental car company, I found myself at the start of a nature trail. I was suddenly taken aback by the gushing Nunobiki waterfalls. The blaring car horns of frustrated cab drivers and the mania of the weekend’s busy shopping streets, though physically close, felt miles away. The short trail meandered its way around the falls and under the cable car taking visitors to Kobe’s large Herb Garden. I reached a large, placid water reservoir and turned back, making my way into the main city for a curry lunch.

After lunch I was on a train to Suma. Less than fifteen minutes on the train took me to Kansai’s longest beach. Despite being at the centre of a busy city, it was a pleasant surprise to realise that the ocean wasn’t far away. With overtanned lifeguards keeping an eye on the almost nonexistent swell, I took a quick dip in the water, realising this might be the last time I’d be able to do so whilst in Japan.