Trip 13 to Japan - October and November 2025 - Page 3

My early morning walk took me back past the Imperial Palace to check on the cleanliness of the moat.

I can confirm that it is a moat.

Here is my train. It is the same as all the trains. It was not even full which was a bit surprising because it is a long weekend in Japan.

Now for my hotel. I seem to be setting a new expectation of three boring hotel pictures per hotel. This one does not have 2 desks, but it does have the weird double entry setup, which seems like a massive waste of space. In the entry the bathroom is on the left, but the wash basin in on the right, in the entry.

Inside the room proper, and the desk area is of very questionable ergonomics. A whole heap of crap in the only work area, and the power points are in a stupid location.

No bath here. Last room had a bath. I declare Ochanomizu Sotetsu Fresa hotel with it's 2 desks to be better than Kobe Dormy Inn.

A lot of same same covered shopping and underground shopping photos tonight. This is Motomachi, which basically joins onto my hotel.

Motomachi goes on for a while, around a corner.

It just keeps going.

I decided to go down a level. Here is the map. Good luck.

Underground was much much more busy. No chance of getting into any restaurant down here.

I went back up again, still undercover. This is not Motomachi, but seems to zig zag along for a while until it joins up.

I decided my best bet to get into somewhere to eat was to go out into the rain, which is when my socks got soaked through. Definitely best photo of the night.

So it was time to find a place nearby, and I was the only person in the omurice place surrounded by puddles on all side.

Today's hike starts at Ashiyagawa station. It is about 2km from the trail proper. The great thing about this hike is how close it is to the centre of town. No 2 hour train ride today, just 10 minutes.

The road up to the trail is quite nice, and there are a lot of Lamborghini's or similar in the houses.

It is a steep road, you can see Kobe below.

Here is where the trail starts. I recall this shop being open in the past. Today it is not.

There is a waterfall. It is about 12 feet high.

A lot of these people are wearing helmets. I often get asked if I should be wearing a helmet.

As mentioned, the start of the hike is as much rock climbing as it is hiking, but it makes for great views.

Nice.

Osaka is just around to the left. You will see it soon.

It takes over an hour to ascend through the rock garden.

The view is a bit deceiving today, the actual peak is quite high at just under 1000m, that is not it.

Past the rock garden there are some sandy ravines.

Osaka is on the left of this photo, I think. Nice cloud.

One of the intermediary peaks. A few other people around, and some power lines.

Parts were dark and moist, but never overly muddy.

I remembered this from last time, between the peaks is a very fancy golf course. The trail skirts along its edge for a while.

The next peak. Not a lot of Autumn yet.

I had to cross a couple of streams. I remained upright.

A bit more view.

The top of Mount Rokko has not a lot going for it. And not many other people. There is a cable car nearby, and a 'skyway' toll road runs along the top of the ridge. Cyclists like it, maybe they do not have to pay the toll.

I think I went in that direction last time. I was surprised to be in cloud.

I continued over the back. At first it was very developed.

Public toilets. High quality.

The way down was very smooth. I ran most of it.

The first proper red tree.

Autumn has started but is nowhere near peaking.

Here is where I came out at Arima Onsen.

Obviously there is a shrine.

The village is much larger than I thought. Steam was coming out of the road in places from the hot springs.

There were a lot of tourists, and ice cream shops.

Streets lined with shops all the way to the train station.

I think this water may have been hot or at least warm. People upstream have to leave their showers running permanently so that the storm water is hot.

And after a hike that did not take as long as expected, here is the train. It goes one stop. Then you change and go a couple of stops, then you change and go through a huge tunnel under the whole mountain range straight back to Kobe. The whole journey back takes only about 20 minutes.

A Chinatown street. Not as big as Yokohama, but not bad. I did not hear much Chinese being spoken though.

The street stalls were closing up, I think they were mainly selling various noodles.

Not ridiculously busy.

There is a lot going on here.

Shinkaichi area now, starting with an underground corridor leading from Kobe station, with almost no shops.

A large covered shopping street appeared. Longer than I thought, but mainly Pachinko and food that seemed alarmingly cheap.

The far end had almost nothing, but wait, there's still more...

There is then this weird underground bit in the side of a hill, which joins onto YET ANOTHER long covered shopping street. What is going on here?

Once I saw this sign I realised it was where I stayed last time. I will do forensic analysis comparing my trip from 2017 to make sure.

Relatively nearby is the more upmarket area of Harbortown, with a series of interconnected indoor / outdoor malls with aquatic themed entertainment, mermaids and ships and such.

Most places had lines, the pork schnitzel place did not, so pork schnitzel time it was. Yes I know it is called katsu.

And finally, a train. I stood in the street making train noises. Tomorrow is not a hiking day, rejoice?

Sannomiya station has a lot of construction going on. For those not familiar, Sannomiya is the main part of Kobe, Kobe and Shin Kobe are not the main parts. I hope that's clear?

I always enjoy the overpass. Nice trees.

Next I wandered up the hill, where there are a number of houses from the Addams family. This one is a cafe, they all are.

Once I found a way into Suwayama park, and it was the scariest playground I have seen for many years.

Nice view looking into the early sun.

The park is on the side of a big hill, once you get to the top, you can climb up the viewing lookout thing, so I did.

Behold, the view from the top.

After descending through cobweb filled trails to find another way out of the park, here is the entrance gate to Sorakuen garden.

First up, the stables. I suspect these were originally built on this site.

This building however, was moved to this location, and was originally built by an Indian businessman.

The Japanese part of the garden is very nice. The building on the right used to be a river boat of some kind.

Nice views all around the lake.

OK one more.

After a short train ride, it was time to admire the bridge. Akashi Kaikyo, I won't be typing it's convoluted name again.

Cash is required to go up to the viewing galleries that hang off the bottom of the bridge. I enjoyed looking at the trusses.

Although they have encased it all in mesh, it is open to the sea air and the mesh is spaced wide enough that you can take a mesh free photo.

There are a couple of enclosed bits along the catwalks. One of which has a cafe.

Opportunity for conjunctivitis.

I enjoy this photo a lot.

This is the end of the bits you can walk on. I really wanted to continue all the way across on the service catwalk below. The actual road is above. There is no train over this bridge, which is surprising.

Here is the view in the other direction, nothing special.

OK, one more of the bridge. I believe it is crooked, or the ocean is, or both.

Finally, the museum, which also does not take credit card, is small but pretty good. A lot of info in Japanese only, but also informative pictures. If you like info on steel cables, this is your museum.

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.