Kobe - Mount Rokko

Yesterday we decided to Kobe again. We'd been to Kobe once before, at the start of our summer holidays, when we went to the Maritime and Science Museums, and nearly melted in the heat. We'd heard there was some beautiful scenery in the mountains behind Kobe, so we thought we'd explore some of that this time around. A quick look on the Internet indicated that Mount Rokko had some beautiful scenery, so we thought we'd give it a go.

Cable railway to get to the top

The views from the top were pretty spectacular. You could see across the city of Kobe to the bay, which contains a number of very rectangular looking reclaimed islands. In the last picture, in the curve of the bay to the left is Osaka, some 30ish km away. There is no obvious demarcation line between the two cities. Just crazy dense buildings all the way. From Osaka to Kyoto would be much the same. City all the way, including Takatsuki in between.

The top of the mountain was a bit of a surprise. Apart from the scenes of the city laid out below the mountain, I didn't really find the spectacular photographic opportunities I had been lead to believe I would find. Maybe my idea of spectacular photographic opportunities (natural landscapes and old buildings) just differs to the review of the mountain that I read. However, the top of the mountain was better than just a site for good photography, it was an opportunity to regress to childhood for a day. Spread across the mountain top was a collection of touristy sites which seemed to have little in common except that they were not Japanese in style, and they all charged fairly modest entry fees which added up to quite a bit over the course of the day.

A tower, because they can

Apparently this is an observatory...

The highlight of the day was a kids' zone attached to a country house. We caught a ride down in a chairlift that had no safety bar across the front.

At the bottom were a number of activities, some free, some not. We decided to pay for a 10 minute turn in a paddle boat. The pond was full of fish desperately vying for a feed from any number of people throwing in food. Acting on impulse, when I saw a hungry looking fish heading towards the boat, I stuck my finger in the water, and sure enough, got a nibble.

While queuing for our turn on the paddle boat, we watched groups of children sliding down the hill on little sledges. It looked like fun. Some went down backwards, many came off.

However, at $6 each for a 15 minute turn, we thought it a bit too expensive, and possibly not sufficiently exciting for twenty-something year olds. Besides, there was plenty of hill around, and I had a better idea, something I remembered doing as a very small child on the slopes otside Parliament House in Canberra. Hunter thought I was absolutely mad, but I persuaded him to give it a try, although he didn't seem to find it as much fun as I did. I think the Japanese people thought that we were absolutely insane, but despite the grass itch, it was definitely worth it. I felt more alive than I had for a long time. Hunter disagreed, he said it made him feel nauseous.

After brushing the grass off, and discovering that I had managed to increase the size of a small tear in my jeans, we hopped on another bus to try and find the cheese castle that was on our map. We failed to find any such castle, but did find a Heidi-themed alpine area, with sheep, goats, pigs, and very fluffy rabbits.

We sat down for an ice-cream, and then caught another bus to Mount Maya, where we were able to catch a series of cable cars back down the mountains.