Kobe

I've been wanting to get down to Kobe's since last year. Maybe it's just the lure of world-famous beef that's kept it on my list, but I've also still spent almost zero time experiencing Japanese city life.

Reading up in advance it's not one of the ‘big name’ cities. There's none of the famous shopping areas of Tokyo or the shrines of Kyoto, and it's so close to Osaka that they're practically one city. But first impressions... it's a cool place. Even wandering about with my 15+ kilo backpack and associated post-travel haze I could see that it's full of cool vintage stores, cafes, restaurants and street art. I could say it feels hipster but I don't want to ruin the place, although I'm sure you could find somewhere doing vegan avocado toast no problem. After a few weeks living there I'd say Kobe is to Kyoto what Bristol is to London. Or, from what I can remember, what San Diego is to LA. It's the more chilled out, colourful, slightly more fun, little brother. In the daytime there's a chilled out surfer-ish vibe, and at night there's a pretty rowdy, but not too in your face, party scene. It's an easy place to feel at home and lose whole days in exploring.

The landscape's pretty typical of a lot of Japan, the city stretched out long and thin in the narrow strip between the sea and the mountains (which still remind me of Jurassic Park). The main difference here is because Kobe's pretty far south the weather is HOT. And humid, tropical even, it's nearing Thai levels of stickiness. I'm a single man in Japan and there's a lot of beautiful women here but let's be honest, the chances of me impressing The One (or even The Any) in a place where you sweat buckets just walking to the store are pretty slim.

I tried to make it down this far south last year for a Workaway I'd been chatting to for a while, and was pretty bummed that I couldn't make it. But this time the stars aligned so for three weeks I lived and worked above a bar called Alchemy. It's a pretty sweet setup - a bar downstairs, another on the roof and three floors of living space in between for short and long term residents. It's a good place with good people, the work's easy and fair, mostly cleaning but apparently I look good with a drill in my hand so I got a few more odd maintenance jobs. Plus I tried to finally fit a bit of filming in, I've been pretty lazy on that front.

There's a lot of cool shit going on at the bar, and the surrounding area of Motomachi. The first weekend after I arrived was Loopy Roof, a roof party on a stinking hot day with nearly 200 people getting nicely toasted on cocktails. Another day the Japanese guitarist from Simply Red and his buddies did an awesome jam session (although, bless 'em, they did combine forces into Mega Snored, I had to sleep in the common room). There was always something going on - acoustic night, movie and sports screenings. I have to say... living above a bar is pretty lethal. Not just the temptation to get fat on beer but also how it affects your sleeping patterns. I've never been one of life's early risers, but when everyone around you is up til 3 or 4am every night it's tough not to want to join in and end up missing half of the day after. Every day.

The thing I really liked was finally getting to scratch the itch of Japanese city living, being embedded in a local scene. Alchemy is part of a nice little party circuit so there's that crowd - the DJs, artists, random explorers or casual binge drinkers like myself. Plus being in a bar with a short-stay dorm meant there's always new people to chat to passing through, from long-term gaijin to locals who's just missed their last train after too many beers. It's always funny meeting other travellers at different stages of their trip, and in a place like Japan it's hard not to spend half your time analysing how well or badly you're doing at fucking up local etiquette. I tried not take over conversations by being the knowitall Japanwanker ("oh you MUST go and see this thing when you go to..."), but I probably did it a fair few times. I think it's natural out here, the enthusiasm to share the fact you'd finally mastered something as complex as knowing how to get on and off a local bus.

One thing that did amaze me was the level of spoken Japanese a lot of Motomachi Westerners had. My confidence got shot down a bit on the first night when I spent about an hour having a slow, stumbling conversation with three Japanese medical students (once I mentioned that I used to work for MTV they just wanted to know if I'd ever met Justin Bieber or Michael Jackson. And no, I haven't). We got through a question and response process but it took a while, and I realised how far off the level of having a free-flowing chat my Japanese is. But. I got talking to more than a few gaijin who'd been in town for... eighteen months, two years? And they could just about muster about 'please', 'thankyou' and 'excuse me'. It's not really a criticism, obviously there's no need to learn Japanese if your job is teaching English and your social circle is mostly gaijin. But it struck me, you'd have to make a real specific effort not to pick any a few things after that long. Suddenly my chat with the students felt pretty accomplished.

So what is there to see in Kobe... plenty, and that's the sad thing. Without a big name temple or shrine a lot of people would skip the area when it's totally worth a visit. I mean, having a love hotel next door (and maybe a brothel, I was never sure) isn't exactly going to put the area I was living on the top of any Tripadvisor lists. But there's a lot to enjoy in Kobe. Hiking is excellent. Waterfalls, gardens, sake museums, beaches, general seaside vibes. It's also only a short train hop to Arima Onsen, a cute little town with plenty of upmarket guesthouses and excellent hot baths. Plus the longest suspension bridge in the world is nearby - I know right, your booking a flight already. It's actually quite pretty at night.

Really I'd say it's really a city primed for shoppers and eaters. Around Alchemy there was at least seven or eight cool vintage stores, and under the train tracks there were whole arcades of the same. It seems to fit with the locals who have a bit more of a mellow, hip-hop fashion sense than the slightly uptight Tokyo...ians. Tokyoites? And food, my god. Kobe beef is obviously famous and it's worth sampling. Expect a small steak with sides to be around Y1000-1500 (£7-£10), or a beef donburi (beef-topped rice bowl) to be about Y700 (£5). But there's so much more - variations on all the usual Japanese food, European cafes with fresh cakes, and one absolutely amazing burrito shop. I haven't missed much western food but a good burrito seems to be one hard thing to find out here, so if you're ever in town head to The Quarter Snacks near Sannomiya station.

What else... the workaway was self-catering and I got to cook for Asian people a few times. It's a small thing but the reaction can be pretty hilarious, firstly from being a man in the kitchen (I get the feeling Japanese men don't often handle dinner duties) and also as a gaijin cooking Japanese flavours. I wasn't exactly doing a Ken Hom banquet - a bit of stir fry and some noodles or some packet okonomiyaki - but it's good to surprise people.

Ah, and earthquakes. Yeah... that happened. After having typhoons and Korean missiles overhead in 2017I'd sort of jokingly said that a quake was still on my list of things to experience. Well having been in one now I'm in no hurry for a repeat performance. We got a pretty heavy hit but with thankfully minor effects - some things fell over, the trains were delayed. But Osaka up the coast got the full force with major damage and a few fatalities. Waking up to my whole world shimmying a few inches each way isn't something I want to experience again, it's one of those rare 'power of nature' experiences, where the world reminds you how small you really are in the grand scheme.

Shaking foundations aside, I could see myself settling down in Kobe. When the weather's cooled down a bit at least.

#travel #japan #Workaway #japanese