Kobe beyond the bathroom

Kobe is an old city with a lot of modern additions as well as some major renovations that were required following a major earthquake in 1995. I do remember seeing and reading about it in the news. Apart from painful memories, memorial parks and a small area of unrepaired damage onthe the harbour front, there are few signs of the extreme chaos that hit the city that fateful January morning. Although the tremor lasted only about 20 seconds, the damage was considerable and the aftershocks continued for many days. Further information (some unverified) at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_earthquake

Apparently it was surprising to learn that reclaimed land does not ‘buckle’ (incorrect technical term acknowledged) under the pressure of an earthquake – or not this one at least – as huge areas along the waterfront survived better than other parts of the city. It’s very scary looking at the cracked concrete, twisted railings and leaning lamp posts and thinking about the force needed to cause this amount of damage.



In the same area relics of the old foreigner settlement can still be found. The style of some of the buildings tell what era they were built – as a country that was previously largely closed to foreign influence and trade, its quite easy to date the start of this period of settlement to around the middle of the 19th century. Seems it continued well into the 20th as art deco architecture is very much in evidence.

There is even an example showing that popping the roof of an old building to add a dozen more floors can actually work and look reasonably well in keeping with traditional style.


Some pretty spectacular, and some less 'in character' residences remain among traditional temples in the Kitano district, which is located up the hill overlooking the port.





The reason for Kobe’s expansion on the seawards side needs no exploration. Fringing the west side of a large, roughly horseshoe shaped bay, the city is flanked on the south edge by hills steep enough to prevent further building.



It is winter right now, and just to illustrate that point, there was frost on the hills the first clear morning of my stay. Nice to see a spot of sunshine after leaving the heat of NZ summer behond to come here, even if it did take the temperature down to about 1C.

Osaka is on the east side of the bay, and although I was told that two or three other cities lie in between there and Kobe, it was impossible to tell where one stops and the next starts as the entire area is built up, built in, covered in high rise apartment blocks, factories, gas storage terminals, timber yards enclosed shopping malls etc. etc. etc. Do you get the idea that its pretty densely inhabited? I was surprised to learn that the population of Kobe is only about the same as Auckland (1.5 million). It sure looks like a whole lot more.



I guess it’s the density that does it!