Day 21 - 2 Aug - Kobe, Japan

The ports on this cruise keep getting better. We arrived in Kobe (across the bay from Osaka) at 10am and docked at the Kobe terminal. The terminal is very modern and well set up for cruise ships with free good WIFI and lots of little vendors. A passenger in front of us got caught taking fruit off the ship and got to spend some time behind closed doors. The local officials are serious in inspecting our bags.

We took the port shuttle to China Town and the Motomachi shopping street. We walked the length of Chinatown's Main Street and found a place to have some cashew chicken for lunch. It was blazing hot as we walked down to the Kobe Maritime Museum which also housed the Kawasaki Good Times World. We bout a combo ticket which gave us access to the museums plus the Kobe Tower. 

The Kawasaki museum was a gem which presented all the aspects of Kawasaki which are way more than motorcycles which I was expecting. Ships, subs, turbines, airplanes, helicopters and more are being produced by Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

In the Maritime portion of the museum there's an extensive collection of models of ships and pictures of cruise ships that have visited the port. Among them were the Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Statendam, Zaandam. There were even a couple of commemorative plates from the Statendam.. I would highly recommend a visit to this museum (both parts).

Next we visited the Kobe Tower to enjoy the 360° views of the port. After coming down from the tower we headed towards the big wheel to ride it which is what we typically do in ports that have them. Along the way we came across a local harbor cruise boat, the Fantasy which had another combo ticket that included the big wheel.

This harbor tour had two really cool aspects. We passed by the Kawasaki and Mitsubishi shipyards that were building or repairing submarines. The second one was a surprise cruise by the Maasdam where we were able to talk with other passengers about being on the Maasdam. We then walked over to the giant wheel and used our combo ticket to ride it.  

Afterwards we walked through the Mosaic shopping mall. There was a kiddo presentation by Anpannan characters. The kiddos really got into it! We walked back to the shuttle bus pickup point via the Motomachi shopping street and ate some Chinese food along the way. It was really tasty. We also found a couple 100 Yen store.

Back at the port we shopped a bit before reboarding the ship around 8 pm. There were around 100 guests yet to reboard. We made our way to deck 12 to do some night photography. I found a place in the Crow's Nest to sit back and write my blog while looking at the red highway and train bridge.  

We had a great day even though we weren't over 2 miles from the ship.

We depart tonight at midnight as the next port is just across the bay. I'll leave you with some night shots.

 

We'll be back in two weeks!