Japan 2018: Day 09

Wet weather again greeted us when we awoke this morning. After the usual morning rituals, we headed out towards Kobe Station. Thankfully the rain had stopped, though the skies were still pretty overcast. The walk to the station took us around 10 minutes and the distance was around 700m.

The view outside of the apartment.

Waiting on the platform at Kobe Station.

Our train arrives.

We arrived at Kobe Station and caught the train to Nada Station on the JR Tokaido-Sanyo line, just four stations to the north. We then walked a leisurely kilometre-and-a-bit to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institute, or simply, the Kobe Earthquake Museum.

Walking from Nada Station.

The walk to the Kobe Earthquake Museum.

The two buildings that house the museum are really quite impressive, though one is constructed of only glass on the outside, the internal structure (which is obviously visible from the outside) looks like it has been purpose-built to withstand just about anything that Mother Nature can throw at it.

Entry to the museum was around 600 Yen (AUD$8) each. The museum was very informative and achieved capturing the essence of the tragedy that struck Kobe in 1995. It contained multiple audio visual theatres (which vibrated your insides like no other theatre I have been to), a recreation of a Kobe street that had just been afflicted by the Kobe Earthquake which we all could walk through, thousands upon thousands of trinkets and pieces of memorabilia donated by survivors, excellent, yet simple dioramas, lots of hands-on displays simulating the effects of earthquakes and plenty of friendly Docents to assist Japanese language-challenged tourists like us.

The dioramas focus on the earthquake and the steps towards rehabilitation:

One friendly Docent in particular helped us through the intricacies of the many displays, though at one point I think that she was more interested in learning about Australia's flora and fauna than she was about discussing the Kobe Earthquake. She was lovely though, and her English language skills were great and much appreciated. Interestingly, the focus of the museum is not so much on the earthquake, but rather the resilience of people and the need for people to look out and support others. We spent a good few hours at the Museum taking in the magnitude of the earthquake (no pun intended).

Afterwards, we headed back to Nada Station and caught the train to Motomachi Station where we briefly walked through Kobe Chinatown to Meriken Park, a distance of around a kilometre.

Some hi-jinx at a shopping centre across the road from the Museum.

The Highway 2 Expressway.

Apparently, this is called the Pease Cracker (yes, correct spelling), that's all we know about this 'thing'.

Walking back towards Nada Station.

At Nada Station, waiting for our train.

Stepping out of Motomachi Station.

The Chinatown area.

Sannomiya Shrine.

The Kobe Yusen Building.

Hanshin Expressway Number 3.

The Fish Dance Monument.

Hanshin Expressway Number 3.

At Meriken Park we visited the Kobe Maritime Museum, which from my perspective was pretty average. The Maritime Museum opened back in 1987 to celebrate the 120th anniversary since the Port of Kobe commenced as a Treaty Port in 1868. There were heaps of very detailed and pretty impressive ship models, with the major display being a huge nine metre long model of the British warship HMS Rodney, which fired the signal gun that marked the opening of the modern Port of Kobe as a Treaty Port.

The Port of Kobe Maritime Museum.

The nine metre model of the HMS Rodney.

We also visited Kawasaki World which houses an impressive motorcycle gallery and other Kawasaki products such as the twin rotor Kawasaki-Vertol KV-107II helicopter and a Series 0 Shinkansen. In fact, you'd be surprised by the huge range of products that wear the Kawasaki name, or in which Kawasaki collaborates.

As for the motorcycle gallery, it featured famous bikes including: the KR500 (Kork Ballington model), Ninja ZX-RR (Shinya Nakano model), 125 B8 and Avenger (A7). Truthfully though, I had no idea and wouldn't have been able to pick out any of them.

There was also a riding simulator where you are surrounded by a giant sceptical screen racing another bike on a Ninja ZX-10R. This would be super-impressive if you are into bikes.

Gaining on my opponent in the simulator.

Sky and Kyle try on a pair of bikes for size.

Maureen taking me for a spin.

With that done, we walked back to a shopping centre near the Port of Kobe for some light shopping before a very heavy, all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. It was okay, but not as good as we were expecting. Suffering from individual Food Comas, we headed back to the apartment.