After a couple days in Osaka, we caught a train to Kobe, which is most famous for it’s Kobe beef.

We walked over to the Chinatown area

We stayed very close to here at the 123 Hotel – it’s a chain all over Japan and, while it’s not the most glamorous place, it has everything we needed.

At night we took the ropeway up the mountain for panoramic views of Kobe and it’s port. Be warned, at the top is a bizarre and rather cheesy German-style village

It was a little chilly up there as the sun set, so we didn’t stay that long

We were rather hungry so we found a restaurant back in town to eat some of the world famous Kobe beef

It was quite good, but a little pricey. Japan has so much other delicious food for a fraction of the cost, but we had to try Kobe beef at least once.

We only spent one night in Kobe before heading back to Osaka. On the way, we stopped off at Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum, which was awesome! It’s free, very informative and has free sake tastings at the end (there’s no limit on how much you can have)

It’s also a museum that explains the ancient process of making sake with displays like this and short videos.

There’s free, unlimited sake tasting at the end. We were the only ones in the museum but there was several people in the tasting area – some people just come during lunch for a little buzz.