2 November 2025
King of Shotengai
Shin-Nagata
Kobe takes the crown from Osaka as king of Shotengai (covered shopping streets).
Tonight I made the 90 minute (on foot) journey to Shin-Nagata to see if there really was another covered shopping street there. There was, and there is also a famous giant robot anime thing. To get there I followed the tracks, which was a bit dark and lonely at times, but I did see 2 scooter police pull over another scooter rider, which was interesting because they rode along on their scooters blowing very loud whistles until the guy pulled over.
Once I got to Shin-Nagata, and it was indeed a sizeable Shotengai, but was mostly closed. A bit different to most of the others in that there seems to be parallel properly indoor malls alongside the outdoor mall on both sides. Then I spotted another one just as I was leaving which sealed the deal, a new king is crowned.
I could have found dinner in Shin-Nagata, but I had pre-planned to take the train back to Sannomiya as I am running out of nights in Kobe and wanted another look. So that I did.
The walk was quite far. There was a sunset of sorts just as I set off, threatening clouds.
Here is Kobe station, which is not one of the main stations in Kobe as I explained earlier. It had rained for about 10 seconds at this point, that is all the rain there was.
I have never taken a taxi.
I arrived at Shin-Nagata shopping area via a series of overpasses from the 3 or more stations belonging to 3 different companies that converge in this area.
I forget the name of this thing, but it is huge. I am somewhat surprised I do not see more photos of it on the various websites that all show the same 10 or so photos of Japan.
The Shotengai here has a lot of Pachinko.
It was nearly all closed on a Sunday night.
Bonus Shotengai. I only found this one because I decided to take a different train line back to Sannomiya.
Back in the centre of town now, as evidenced by the copious amounts of neon.
The layout is a bit confusing, there are a lot of train stations around.
I remembered this street from previous visits.
You can also walk up the middle of the areas under the tracks, for a very long way. Useful when it is raining. I dragged my suitcase down here the afternoon I arrived when it was raining.
And then eventually I settled on ramen, high quality, delicious. It was actually Ippudo, which you can find all over the world, I did not even realise until I ordered.
Tomorrow is a hiking day, probably a shorter hike because I have selected a different coastal mountain range.