places to visit in kobe

*back dated entry*

today is to share about kobe attraction & i am sure the first thing that comes to most people mind is kobe beef!!! personally i am not a beef person cause i need my meat to be well done before i can consume & i prefer dryer meat patty so i may not be able to appreciate those "melt in your mouth" beef.... BUT i certainly dont mind trying kobe beef cause i love japanese cuisine =) so i shall share a nice place to eat kobe beef at a reasonable price....

1. sannomiya 
so i was reading my travel bible & i came across this famous kobe beef restaurant, ishida , which has like 2 outlets in sannomiya... from the pictures in my travel bible the lunch set meal looks really yummy... they serve different grades of wagyu beef & i think the cheapest set start from about 3000yen... of cause it's still expensive for lunch but if it's for wagyu beef then i think is worth to try.... there are also some shopping places in that area so you can have an early lunch at ishida before doing some shopping...

2. shin-kobe area

so there are actually 2 kobe stations, first is the kobe station which is like THE kobe station which you can access via JR & local trains but there is also a shin-kobe station for shinkansen...i will first talk about shin-kobe area & there are 2 main attractions over there... first is shin-kobe ropeway

shin-kobe ropeway, photo taken from here....

night view from ropeway, photo taken from here....

nunobiki waterfall, photo taken from here....

ropeway mean cable car & the view is really nice up in the hill especially the night view... however, the cable car only operate at night during summer so i wont get to see the night view during winter =( along the walk down the hill, you get to see this nunobiko waterfall... looks pretty nice... & the website say 15-20min climb so i think it will be okay for me to walk down from the top cable car station =)

kitano-cho, picture taken from here....

another attraction is kitano-cho, it's an area whereby most foreigners stayed last time so you can visit those unique houses.... since each house require admission fee so cheapo me will probably just walk around the area & not enter...

3. kobe harbourland

kobe harbourland, photo taken from here....

so this place is at the kobe station & is pretty much just shopping & amusement park area.... since the place is at the port so you can also take some sea view pictures....

4. mount rokko

view from mount rokko, photo taken from here....

so this place also has cable car just like shin-kobe ropeway to go up the mountain... so the main aim is to have a bird eye view of kobe.... & of cause it's like the middle station before you head to the next place = arima onsen....

5. arima onsen

arima street, photo taken from here....

hot spring, photo taken from here....

this is a famous onsen in kobe & i really want to go cause there are some nice souvenir & food shops in arima area... there are several ways to reach arima & one of them is to take ropeway from mount rokko.... my sister tried to go arima like a week ago (cause she went to osaka) but fail cause it was too complicated & especially so in winter cause alot of roads were closed... so i will probably have to forgo this place & visit it again next time =(

i think unless you want to do a lot of shopping at kobe harbourland or i think kobe can be a day trip... my main goal will be to eat kobe beef & try to shin-kobe ropeway.... shopping doesnt appeal that much to me since i can do that while i am in tokyo *wriggle brows* =)