Canadian World Traveller Fallr 2016 issue American World Traveler Fall 2016 issue | Page 13

of the shopping district but also as the home
of China Town. We met Ms. Kei Matsuura
from the City of Kobe who would show us
around for two days, hopped on a local train
and travelled five stops to the Nada ‘sake’
district, with the Rokko Mountains to the
north and the Bay of Osaka to the south.
The Kobe Shu-Shin-Kan sake brewery
includes the ultra-popular restaurant,
Sakabayashi with a menu of taste bud treats
that include crab meat with tofu,
local–grown Hyogo Prefecture vegetables,
yellowtail fish (sashimi, grilled and teriyaki
style), minced chicken in broth with enoki
mushrooms and leeks, plum flavoured rice,
and “sake lees”, a yeast paste left over from
the production of sake, mixed with salmon
and mushroom.
As an after-lunch treat we toured the brewery
to better understand the secrets of the brewing process and take advantage of the
opportunity to sample the product. And for
those looking for some historical insight into
the importance of sake to the region, the
nearby Sawa-no-Tsuru Brewery Museum
takes you back in time, 200 years, to see
huge wooden vats, models of the ships used
to export sake, display cases of good luck
sake gods and even some early sake advertising posters .
The link that took us back to the future was
provided by a visit to the Akashi Kaikyo
Bridge, about a 30 minute taxi ride away.
The suspension bridge, which boasts the
longest central span in the world, crosses the
busy Akashi Strait (Akashi Kaiykyo) to link
Kobe with the city of Iwaya on Awaji Island.
The Exhibition Centre tells the story of the
bridge construction as well as demonstrates
the hinged girder system that allows the
structure to withstand high winds, strong sea
currents and earthquakes. For those who
want to see the bridge up close and personal, the impressive walk on the Maiko Marine
Promenade, 50 meters above the water is
fascinating.
In the evening, many visitors seek out the
“10 Million Dollar Night View” by taking the
ropeway to Kikuseidai (literally “the hill
where one can scoop a handful of stars”) for
breathtaking views of the Milky Way above,

and Kobe’s city lights below.
On our second day we toured the Takenaka
Carpentry Museum, an architectural masterpiece that features an excellent photo exhibit on the main floor and, after a descent
down a staircase hewn from one single Oak
tree, we discovered a perfectly laid out display of carpentry tools, a full size tea house
and historical treasures. According to
Museum Director and building architect
Kenzo Akao, the museum is based on the
theme of the five senses: Seeing, Listening,
Touching, Smelling and Inspiration. For
those who never really thought about carpentry, this is a definite inspiring ‘must-see’.
And as a special bonus on weekends, the
museum conducts carpentry workshops and
it was here that we made chopsticks! We
started with two squared sticks of cypress
wood and after planing and sanding them
for 30 minutes, we ended up with a tapered,
matching pair of eating utensils. The ultimate test was to pick up a glass marble with
the chopsticks, and I’m pleased to report that
we passed!
Down the street we hopped on the City Loop
Bus which visits all the major attractions, and
disembarked at Kitano-cho, a district at the
foot of the Rokko Mountains where foreign
merchants and diplomats settled after the
Port of Kobe was opened to outside trade in
1868. The area rates as one of Kobe’s top
draws and includes great views of the port as
well as buskers, street artists, souvenir and
coffee shops that mingle with the 34 historic
Western style houses. A tour of Kaza-miDori (the Weathercock House) named after
the iconic weather vane on the roof and built
by the German trader Gottfried Thomas in
1909, provided fascinating insight into the
lives of the merchants.
And then it was time to experience perhaps
the ultimate flavor of Kobe, the famous beef.
We sat around the grill in Wakkoku, one of
the Kobe’s top restaurants, with owner
Masato Shinno as our culinary guide.
Shinno-san explained that the popular term
‘Wagyu Beef’ refers to any kind of Japanese
Beef. The more marbled meat is referred to
as Tajima Beef and the very specialized marbled meat is Kobe Beef. In fact there are only

3700 head of Kobe beef cattle in the
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world, with 80-90 of them in Canada
and the United States. “Shimofuri”
refers to fat marbling and results in tender
meat fibres, rich in oleic acids that, alongside lineage, determine the quality, taste and
flavor of the beef.
And then the chef, Shimete-san, began to
prepare lunch in front of us. He carefully
cut, trimmed and grilled the meat, which is
served in small portions a little at a time, with
‘condiments’ on the side: salt from Hyogo
prefecture, black pepper, home-made mustard and garlic from Aomori. The meat was
complemented with dishes of fragrant potato soup, beansprouts, eggplant, tofu, potato,
lotus root, green pepper and Konnyaku, a
delicate potato jelly.
And each and every bite required us to lay
down our chopsticks to reflect and absorb
the “umami”: the delicious, savory, taste of
the food. We were nearing a state of total
culinary bliss.
Our host, Masato Shinno
explained that the Kanji (or Japanese character) for his name means “the god of agriculture” and that it was very similar to the
Kanji for “Kobe”, which means ‘the door of
the god”. Perhaps that’s why we thought of
the meal in terms of a heavenly experience!
Our visit to Wakkoku was a fitting finale to
our stay but there are activities to experience
on our next trip including Harborland, the
large shopping and entertainment complex
on the water, the Shin-Kobe Ropeway with
access to hiking trails, the Nunobiki Falls
and Herb Garden, the morning Eastern
Market, and further exploration of the
Izakayas in the Sannomya and Moto Machi
districts.
Kobe is a city where so many flavours converge, from Nada sake to Kobe beef; fr