Did you know that it doesn't usually snow in early December in Kobe area? Not even in the mountain! Don't get me wrong, it was super cold out and we experienced it first hand on the day we went to Kobe from Kyoto.
With a box of the famous Mister Donuts that had Pokemon theme on their products at that time in hand, we checked out of our hotel in Kyoto after a 2-night stay there and took the train to Kobe. The train was quite full, so we stood for most of the trip. Fortunately it didn't take too long.
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| Good manner signs on the train. |
It was still around 10 am when we arrived at the B Kobe, the hotel that we booked for our 3 nights there. We weren't able to check in, but they let us leave our luggage there after we changed into our winter gear. We were planning to go to the mountain that afternoon after all.
As planned in the itinerary, I walked to the Hanshin Sannomiya Station to get our Rokkosan Tourist Pass, while I asked my sister to go ahead and line up at the ever-so-busy Steakland Kobe for some beef. There are several places you can get the Rokkosan Tourist Passes from, but that location is the only one in Kobe. Please see this page for the complete list.
With our tummies full, we set out to Mt. Rokko using a combination of our JR pass and Rokkosan Tourist Pass. First, we took the train to JR Rokkomichi Station, and from there we took the Kobe City Bus #16 to Kobe Shita Cable Car Station.
We boarded the cable car and it climbed up all the way to Rokko Cable Rokko Sanjo Station. We were treated with some autumn foliage on the way up. The car itself looked classic with wooden interior but very well maintained. The floor was slanted and I almost lost my balance when I stepped inside! I realised afterwards that it was made slanted to compensate for the climb later.
At the Rokko Sanjo Station, we had about half an hour to use the facilities and looked around. It was starting to feel very cold outside at that height. My dad had stayed inside the station for most of the waiting time because it was too cold. From the bus stops in front of the station we were able to see Kobe from up high.
And finally we were on the bus! Our first destination was the Snow Playground that Miss Kiki had been looking forward to the most on this trip. So there we were, six adults going to a snow playground for a kid's sake. How blessed is she!
We all had to pay a fee to enter the playground, and we rented a sled for her to play with. Oma and opa made one loop around the playground and decided to settle at the cafe, and my sister tried the sled once and followed suit. :D Miss Kiki was lucky enough to have DH play with her the whole time. :)
After they had enough of sledding they moved on to another snow field to build a snowman. Well, it wasn't exactly building because they provided a snowman mould!
Meanwhile, here is the cafe situation...
The it was late afternoon when we left the snow playground. We took the bus to go further up because I wanted to see the oh-so-instagramable Rokko Shidare Observatory, but that's for another post. Until next time!
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