Stroll in Kobe (2) – Mountain Side

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As you may know, Kobe has a landform in which mountains are close to the shoreline, and so you can go to mountains in a short time. Nunobiki-no-Taki (Nunobiki waterfalls) are in the mountains, and promenades are kept in good conditions to go the waterfalls. You can easily walk to go there from Shin-Kobe Station on the Shinkansen. Many people including, children and their parents and groups of elderly people, go on a hike on off days.

(1) Hiking to Nunobiki Waterfalls
Let’s go on a hike to Nunobiki waterfalls.

(A) Shin-Kobe Station
(B) Isagobashi Bridge
(C) Medaki Waterfall
(D) Tsutsumigataki Waterfall
(E) Myotodaki Waterfall
(F) Odaki Waterfall
(G) Viewing Platform
(H) Kazurabashi Bridge

You can reach Isagobashi bridge, which is the starting point of the hike, in a few minutes from Shin-Kobe Station. The mountain atmosphere, not urban atmosphere, already hangs in the air at the bridge. There are many stone monuments because people have come and gone around there since long ago. The number of waterfalls is not only one but five, and so you can see the next waterfall while you walk on a mountain path. After going by the waterfalls, you reach an observation platform, from which you can look out over the city of Kobe. I would have reached a water reservoir, if I further advanced from Kazurabashi bridge, but I stopped at the bridge. In the mountains, there is a big herb garden, named “Nunobiki Herb Garden,” and there is a ropeway to go to the herb garden above the hiking road. You can see the waterfalls and water reservoir from the gondola.
According to a travel brochure about Kobe, it takes about 15 minutes from the starting point to Odaki Waterfall, which is the furthest, on foot (adult). The slope is quite steep, however, and it took about 15 minutes to Medaki Waterfall, which is the nearest, on foot in my case, and it took about 30 minutes to Odaki Waterfall.

(2) Nunobiki Herb Garden
To go to Nunobiki Herb Garden, you can use the ropeway from Shin-Kobe Station. It takes about 10 minutes to reach the herb garden while taking a long look at the city of Kobe and mountains. Along the ropeway is Intermediate Station in addition to the starting station, Sanroku Station, and the terminal station, Sancho Station. If you get off at Intermediate Station, you can soon reach the water reservoir on the hiking course described above. It was hard to go up a slope last time, and so I’ll plan to go down after getting off this station next time.
Well, the ropeway leaves one after the other, so you can get on it without waiting.
布引ハーブ園
(Please click red Japanese letters.)

Tembo Plaza (Viewing Plaza) is at the terminal station. The plaza has a rest house that is modeled on an old German castle, Wartburg Castle, a concert hall, a multipurpose room utilized for meetings or seminars, a museum exhibiting about 80 kinds of natural essential oil and tools for extracting the oil. You will see glass houses when going down a little from Tembo Plaza. You can enjoy a relaxing time in a café or on a terrace.
The city of Kobe can be viewed panoramically from Tembo Plaza, a hillside or the gondola. Time is fleeting between when the evening sun illuminates the sea and then it set over a mountain. The buildings are illuminated summer and during the Christmas season. If you stay on until the lighting up time, you can see a wonderful night view of Kobe from Tembo Plaza and the gondola.

About 200 kinds of flowers and herbs bloom in the garden area spreading from Tembo Plaza to the intermediate station on the mountain surface. The slope is not so steep and benches are here and there, and so please go down slowly while taking a long look at the herb gardens and flower gardens. You can enjoy the flowers in season every time you go in any season.