Getting Around
Where is Kobe
Kobe is located on the island of Honshu, and is the capital of the Hyogo Prefecture. It is in the Kansai region of Japan, in which also Osaka, Nara, Kyoto and Himeji lay in. The Distance between Kobe and Tokyo is 429 km.
Transport
The best way to travel in Kobe is on feet, especially in the centre among Kobe, Motomachi and Sannomiya . The shops in the street makes the distance even shorter.
If you don't want to walk and if you need to go a bit further there are 2 subways :The Kaigan Line that runs along the coast, and the Yamate-Seishin Line that runs toward the mountains. Then you have the train: The Hankyu, Hanshin and the JR lines cross Kobe in a west-east direction, The most busiest station of Kobe are the Sannomiya station , and the Motomachi station .
When you want to go more west or east, you can take the Bullet train (the Shinkansen) which you can take on the Shin-Kobe station in the north of the city. This train will take you to Tokyo in less then 3 hours time.
Taking a taxi in a city is also one of the options, remember taxi’s are expensive, and cabdrivers can't always find the address good, so when you know where you need to be, write it down.
Because Kobe is a Port, you can take a ferry to other places in the area, like Shikoku, Kyushu, and the Awaji-shima island. A city loop bus circles most of the city's sightseeing spots, stopping at both Shin-Kobe and Sannomiya stations.
For visiting the whole Kansai area, it would be handy to buy a JR-West Rail Pass. With this pass the pass holder has unlimited use of any standard trains in the Kansai area ( JR trains only). You can buy a card from 1 up to 4 days, and the price varries from 2000yen up to 6000 yen. For more information see the JR-West Website.
Kobe Airport
On the 17th of Februari 2006, Kobe opened its new airport: Kobe Airport. It have one 2,500-meter runway, and is Build on a reclaimed land 3km south of port Island. It has easy acces to Sannomiya by taking the Port Liner, which will only take about 16minutes.
Since the 12th of July, it is possible to take a ferry from Kobe airport to the Kansai international airport and of course the other way. The ticket cost 1500 yen, and will bring you to one of the airports in 30 minutes. You can find the Ferry on the North-east side of the airport, for more information and a time schedule see www.kobe-access.co.jp