Kobe

Kobe is located on the island of Honshu - and the capital of Hyogo prefecture. Kobe is well known of it's third busiest seaport of Japan.

" Surrounded by mountains, the sea and the countryside, Kobe is blessed with an abundance of beautiful natural surroundings"- says the mayor of Kobe, Tatsuo Yada. Indeed, Kobe has special essence of nature which other cities lack. Kobe is a place which is perhaps best enjoyed by foot. Kobe is less crowded and having a walk outside is generally less frustrating experience than in Tokyo. For hanging out and shopping Sannomiya and Motomachi areas are recommended. There are also some good onsen spots found in Kobe.

On slopes of Mt. Rokko lies the famous Konan University, which is famous of its Faculty of Letters. There is also Kobe Design University, Pharmaceutical University and several girl's colleges.

Kobe suffered heavy firebombings in WWII. City was literally burned down by incendiary -type bombs dropped by B-29 bombers. The firebombing was very heavy and caused nearly 900 000 civilians to lose their lives. This was illustrated in early movie by Studio Ghibli called Grave of the Fireflies, "hotaru no haka".

Great Hanshin earthquake in January 1995, caused severe damage to Kobe. The earthquake measured at 7.2 on the Richter Scale killed 6433 people and made 300 000 people homeless. Quake damaged the infrastructure seriously, including railways, elevated expressways, electricity, communications and waterways.

Kobe is also famous of it's airport, which is built on sea. This was highly critisized due to it's impact on small water creatures living in the sea.

The city belongs to triangle of Kansai - Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto. People in Kobe are known to be friendly and have cheerfull kansai accent.

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