Kobe

The rain catches up with me as I make my way to Kobe. I pull into Shin Kobe station and, with the image of a mist shrouded Fuji fresh in my memory, I decide to skip the Rokko Arima ropeway with it’s promised views of Kobe and Mt. Rokko and head straight down into Kobe itself.

Wandering through the Old Foreign Settlement, I decide to seek shelter in a tea house. I suddenly feel very much at home, drinking my tea and looking out at western, brick buildings and - of course- the rain. I don’t normally seek echoes of home when I’m abroad, but this one was particularly comforting, being un-looked for, so I order a slice of cake to go with my tea and smile to myself when I notice that it’s four o’clock on the dot. I leave the warm embrace of the teahouse and make my way towards the Port of Kobe.

The first thing I find is the Earthquake memorial, where a section of damaged harbour is preserved, complete with split pavement, broken railings and leaning lampposts. I’m reminded of the twisted metal in Tokyo that stood as a memorial to that earthquake and I think of the cultural contrast between the western preference for statues and brass plaques, as opposed to the Japanese taste for memorials that are a little more visceral and thought provoking; not better or worse, just different.

Next I find the Kobe Maritime Museum and the Port Tower [pictured], which glow brightly in the gloomy evening and though the Maritime Museum is closed, there are a few outdoor exhibits. One of which is the Yamoto I, a silent, propeller-less boat that was created in the early 1990s by Mitsubishi. The magnetohydrodynamic drive (powered by a liquid helium-cooled superconductor) works by applying a magnetic field to a conducting fluid - in this case seawater - and contains no moving parts. The boat never moved beyond the prototyping stage as the engineers were unable to improve upon a top speed of 8 knots, but the idea of a silent powerboat is compelling and on this futuristic island nation, it seems perfectly at home.

After a particularly disastrous attempt at locating the guidebook-recommended A1 Steakhouse, I choose instead a restaurant named Kitayama for the most anticipated part of my trip to Kobe - Kobe Beef. Raised on a diet of beer and oats and given daily massages, the Wagyu cattle that produce Kobe Beef are arguably the most pampered cows in the world and the result is a tasty, well marbled, tender beef. Mine came in the form of a charcoal-grilled steak, served rare and absolutely delicious. Of course, I stumbled upon A1 almost the moment I left Kitayama, but it didn’t matter. I’d had my beef and it was good.