Kobe is a city with almost no room. The Rokko mountains come down within two or three kilometres of the sea for the whole length of it, so the city is a long narrow strip, roughly thirty kilometres by three, pressed between the water and a wall of green. You can see both from almost anywhere in it. It was one of the first Japanese ports opened to foreign trade in 1868, which left a hillside district of Western merchant houses at Kitano and a Chinatown that is still one of the three main ones in Japan.
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In January 1995 the Great Hanshin earthquake killed more than 6,400 people here and destroyed much of the city. What stands now is largely rebuilt, and the memorial and the preserved section of collapsed quay are part of what a visit means. Pack for a compact walkable city, for a mountain at the back of it, and for an onsen town fifteen minutes away on the other side.
What Makes Kobe Different to Pack For
Sea level to 931 metres in twenty minutes
The Rokko cable car and the Shin Kobe ropeway both climb from the city into the mountains quickly. The summit area is noticeably cooler, often in cloud when the city is clear, and windy. Through a tunnel on the far side is Arima, one of the oldest onsen towns in Japan.
A merino wool base layer for women handles that and also handles the bathing, since it does not hold odour across a day of sweating and soaking.
Kansai seasons with humidity
Summer runs 24°C to 33°C and is very humid, with a rainy season in June and July and typhoon risk into September. Winter runs 3°C to 10°C, dry and clear, with occasional snow on Rokko and almost none in the city. Spring and autumn are excellent.
A hill city with slopes everywhere
Kitano is a steep hillside district and most streets running north from the station climb hard. The city is very walkable and the walking is uphill in one direction throughout.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Kobe Packing List
Footwear
Slip on shoes with a decent sole, for the Kitano slopes and because shoes come off at temples, some restaurants and every onsen. If you are walking Mount Rokko rather than riding up, waterproof hiking shoes are right: the Nunobiki and Rokko trails are earth, root and stone, wet much of the year, and steeper than the cable car makes them look.
More socks than you think, for the same reason as everywhere in Japan.
Clothing
Light layers for summer and a proper warm layer for the mountain in any season. Kobe is a cosmopolitan and relatively fashion conscious city, more so than most of Japan outside Tokyo, and it dresses well without fuss.
Japan's general norms apply: shoulders covered is standard, shorts less common on adults, and neat is better than casual.
For the onsen at Arima
Baths are nude and gender segregated, and swimwear is not permitted. Arima's kinsen, the gold water, is iron and salt rich, rust coloured, and it will stain a light towel permanently and tarnish silver jewellery. Bring a dark towel or use the ones provided, and leave the jewellery behind.
A hair tie, and a waterproof bag for wet things. Tattoos may still be refused at some baths, so check or choose a private family bath.
For rain and typhoon season
A packable rain jacket from June to October. Japan is an umbrella culture and cheap ones are everywhere, which handles the city; the jacket is for the mountain.
Practical
An IC card such as Icoca for the trains, subways and buses, which works across Kansai and into Kobe's various private lines. Cash, since smaller places are still cash only. Kobe is an easy day trip from Osaka and Kyoto, both around half an hour away.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Mount Rokko and Nunobiki
The Nunobiki falls are a twenty minute walk from Shin Kobe station and are startling for being that close to a shinkansen platform. Above them the Nunobiki Herb Gardens run up the ropeway line, and beyond that the Rokko summit has the Rokko Garden Terrace and a view over the whole Osaka bay.
Practically: the summit is around ten degrees cooler than the city and exposed, and the last ropeway down is earlier than most people assume. The falls walk is steps and stone, wet and slippery, and it continues to a reservoir if you want a longer day.
Arima Onsen
One of the three oldest hot spring towns in Japan, mentioned in eighth century records, on the far side of Rokko and reachable by ropeway over the mountain or by train and bus. Two waters: kinsen, the iron rich gold water, and ginsen, the clear silver water.
Practically: two public baths, Kin no Yu and Gin no Yu, are inexpensive and the easiest way in. Wash thoroughly at the stations before entering. The town is small, steep and stepped, and it is busiest at weekends.
Kitano Ijinkan
The hillside district of Western merchant houses built after the port opened, around twenty of which are open to visit, in English, German, French and American styles that look distinctly odd against the Japanese hillside.
Practically: steep streets throughout, shoes off in some houses, and it takes a couple of hours. Best combined with walking down into the city rather than up.
The Earthquake Memorial and Meriken Park
The Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution documents the 1995 earthquake through survivor testimony and is genuinely affecting. At Meriken Park a section of the quay has been left exactly as the earthquake left it, tilted and broken, as a memorial.
Practically: outdoors and exposed at the park, indoors at the museum. Treat both as memorials.
Nada and the sake breweries
The Nada district produces around a quarter of all Japanese sake, using the Miyamizu spring water, and several breweries have free museums and tastings.
Practically: a short train ride east, mostly flat, and the tastings are small and free.
What Not to Bring
Leave swimwear for the onsen, where it is not permitted. Leave silver jewellery and a white towel for Arima, which the iron water will ruin.
Leave laced boots. Leave the assumption that Kobe is only a beef destination; the beef is excellent, extremely expensive, and about a tenth of what the city is.
Essential Resources for Women in Kobe
Emergency numbers in Japan: police 110, ambulance and fire 119. Both take English with a delay while an interpreter is connected. The Japan Visitor Hotline is +81 50 3816 2787 and operates 24 hours in English, Chinese and Korean. Earthquake and tsunami alerts arrive automatically on Japanese phone networks and are worth not dismissing.
Tourist support: Japan has no separate tourist police, but koban, the neighbourhood police boxes, are the normal first stop for a lost item or a problem, and lost property recovery rates are unusually high. A stolen passport needs a police report before the consulate can act.
US Embassy and consulate: the embassy is in Tokyo at 1-10-5 Akasaka, Minato ku, telephone +81 3 3224 5000, at jp.usembassy.gov. The consulate covering Kansai is the US Consulate General Osaka Kobe, 2-11-5 Nishitenma, Kita ku, Osaka, around half an hour away. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: Kobe University Hospital and Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital both have emergency departments, and Kansai has better English language medical provision than most of Japan. Japan bills treatment in full to visitors, so travel insurance is essential.
Official health authority: the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare at mhlw.go.jp.
US State Department travel advisory for Japan: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Japan: entry requirements, safety and health guidance.
Official tourism authority: the Japan National Tourism Organization at japan.travel, with the Kobe city tourism site at feel-kobe.jp for ropeway timetables, Arima bath opening hours and which onsen currently admit tattooed visitors.
Solo women safety assessment: Kobe is very safe for a woman travelling alone, as Japan generally is. Violent crime against visitors is very rare, theft is uncommon, walking alone at night is normal, and eating alone is completely standard, including at a counter. The city is compact, the transport is excellent and runs late, and English signage is good by Japanese standards because of the port's international history. Kitano and the waterfront are pleasant and busy in the evening. Two specific cautions are worth stating. Groping on crowded trains is a documented problem across Japan, and the Kansai commuter lines at rush hour are among the busier ones; women only carriages operate on some services at peak times and are marked in pink on the platform. Sannomiya, the entertainment district, has a late night drinking scene with some touting around the smaller bars, which is easily avoided by sticking to places with visible prices. Beyond that, the risks are natural. Japan is seismically active and Kobe knows this better than most cities; alerts arrive on your phone, hotels have instructions, and the correct response to a warning is to follow it rather than to photograph it. Typhoons from August to October stop trains and close attractions with a day's notice. On Mount Rokko, the trails are steeper and longer than they appear from the ropeway, people misjudge the last descent time and end up walking down in the dark, and the summit is cold enough to matter if you went up in city clothes.
Reading On
Kobe is the most relaxed of the big Kansai cities and the easiest to walk, with a mountain and an onsen town attached to it. The Japan travel guide for women is the parent for the whole country and covers the regions, the seasons and the rail passes, and the Japan packing list for women covers a multi region trip. Next door, the Osaka travel guide for women and the Kyoto travel guide for women are both half an hour away, and the Nara packing list for women and Himeji packing list for women complete the Kansai circuit, the latter forty minutes west. For onsen elsewhere, the Beppu packing list for women covers the hot spring capital and the Hakone packing list for women covers the Fuji side. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino works in a humid Kansai summer and in and out of hot water all day, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
