Chūō-ku, Kobe

Kobe ( KOH-bay, [koꜜːbe] ; officially 神戸市, Kōbe-shi) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in the Kansai region, which makes up the southern side of the main island of Honshū, on the north shore of Osaka Bay. It is part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kyoto. The Kobe city centre is located about 35 km (22 mi) west of Osaka and 70 km (43 mi) southwest of Kyoto. The earliest written records regarding the region come from the Nihon Shoki, which describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jingū in AD 201. For most of its history, the area was never a single political entity, even during the Tokugawa period, when the port was controlled directly by the Tokugawa shogunate. Kobe did not exist in its current form until its founding in 1889. Its name comes from Kanbe (神戸, an archaic title for supporters of the city's Ikuta Shrine). Kobe became one of Japan's designated cities in 1956. Kobe was one of the cities to open for trade with the West following the 1853 end of the policy of seclusion and has retained its cosmopolitan character ever since with a rich architectural heritage dating back to the Meiji era. While the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake diminished some of Kobe's prominence as a port city, it remains Japan's fourth-busiest container port. Companies headquartered in Kobe include ASICS, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Kobe Steel, while over 100 international corporations have their Asian or Japanese headquarters in the city, including Eli Lilly and Company, Procter & Gamble, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Nestlé. The city is the point of origin and namesake of Kobe beef, the home of Kobe University, and the site of one of Japan's most famous hot spring resorts, Arima Onsen.

Sannomiya-Hanadokeimae Station (三宮・花時計前駅, Sannomiya-Hanadokeimae-eki, Station K01) is one of the termini on the Kobe Municipal Subway Kaigan Line in Chūō-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. This station is part of a complex shared with Sannomiya, which is used by the Seishin-Yamate Line, the Hanshin Main Line, and the Port Liner. Free transfers are available from the Kaigan Line station to the Seishin-Yamate Line station, but passengers are limited to 90 minutes to change trains when using regular tickets and IC cards.

Sannomiya (三宮) is a district of Chūō-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo, Japan. Sannomiya serves as the financial, commercial, and the entertainment center of Kobe. The district takes the name from Sannomiya Shrine, a branch of Ikuta Shrine. Before the 1920s, Sannomiya was just an edge of the city. The major downtowns were Motomachi and Shinkaichi, which are west of Sannomiya. However, after Sogo Department Store moved to the place in front of Sannomiya Station from Motomachi in 1933, the area started to develop rapidly. Sannomiya is also a hub of many transportation systems in Kobe. JR West, Hankyu Railway, Hanshin Electric Railway, Kobe Municipal Subway, and Kobe New Transit use Kobe-Sannomiya Station as their core station in the area. The Kobe Incident in 1868 occurred in this district, in front of Sannomiya Shrine.

The Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club is Japan's oldest sports club, founded 24 September 1870 by Alexander Cameron Sim. The club moved to a newly manufactured building at the end of 1870 and held its first regatta on 24 December, of that same year. The club and its members introduced football, field hockey, cricket, rugby, the crawl (swimming) and ten-pin bowling to Japan Football was introduced in to the club in 1888 and the first official football match in Japan was held on 18 February 1888 between the KR&AC and its Yokohama counterpart, the Yokohama Country & Athletic Club.

The Oriental Hotel is a boutique / lifestyle hotel in Kobe, Japan, reopened on March 3, 2010. The hotel is located in the Kōbe kyū-kyoryūchi 25 bankan building at the junction of Kyōmachi-suji Avenue and Nakamachi-dōri Street in the former Kobe foreign settlement. Dating from 1870, it is one of the most historic hotels not only in Japan, but also in Asia.

Bōeki Center Station (貿易センター駅, Bōeki-Sentā-eki) is a railway station in Hyōgo Prefecture. It is located on the Port Liner in Chūō-ku, Kobe, Japan. Bōeki literally means trade in English. It is the only other station other than Sannomiya and Port Terminal to be on Honshu (Japan's main Island).

Sannomiya Station (三ノ宮駅, Sannomiya eki) is a railway station in Nunobiki-chō, Chūō-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, and is operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The station is on the JR Kobe Line which runs between Osaka Station and Himeji Station; part of the Tōkaidō Main Line. As a part of the JR West Urban Network, the following IC cards are accepted: ICOCA, Suica, PiTaPa, TOICA, and SUGOCA. Sannomiya Station is the main terminal for Kobe and is approximately 2 km east of Kōbe Station. At the beginning of the Meiji period commercial and administrative functions were centred around Kobe Station. However, after Kobe opened as a port for foreign trade, and continuing with the post-World War II reconstruction and expansion of commercial areas, as well as moving Kobe City Hall to the Sannomiya area, the district soon became the new city centre. Even now, Kobe Station is still the representative station of Kobe. For example, in relation to the calculation of Shinkansen fares, Sannomiya Station is not the closest of the old network train stations. On the other hand, the number of passengers using Sannomiya Station is greater than that of Kobe Station. Also, the Kobe Terminal for highway buses is in front of Sannomiya Station, not Kobe Station. Likewise, there are more limited express trains, including overnight trains, which stop at Sannomiya Station than at Kobe Station.

The Kobe City Museum (神戸市立博物館, Kōbe-shiritsu Hakubutsukan) opened in Kobe, Japan in 1982. It is one of Japan's many museums which are supported by a municipality.The museum resulted from the merger of the Municipal Archaeological Art Museum and Municipal Namban Art Museum. The museum is housed in a neoclassical building built in 1935: the former Kobe branch of the Yokohama Specie Bank. The collection of nearly thirty-nine thousand items comprises archaeological artifacts, works of art, old maps, and historical documents and artifacts relating to Kobe. It includes an important collection of Nanban art (the former Hajime Ikenaga Collection), as well as a set of dōtaku and other items of the Yayoi period from excavations at Sakuragaoka that have been designated a National Treasure.

The Kobe Naval Training Center (神戸海軍操練所, Kobe Kaigun Sōren-jō) was a naval training institute in Bakumatsu period Japan, established by the Military Commissioner of the Tokugawa shogunate, Katsu Kaishū in May 1864.

Kyūkyoryūchi-Daimarumae Station (旧居留地・大丸前駅, Kyūkyoryūchi-Daimarumae-eki) is a train station in Chūō-ku, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan.

Kobe Luminarie (神戸ルミナリエ) is a light festival held in Kobe, Japan, every December since 1995 to commemorate the Great Hanshin earthquake of that year. The lights were donated by the Italian Government and the installation itself is produced by Valerio Festi and Hirokazu Imaoka. Over 200,000 individually hand painted lights are lit each year with electricity generated from biomass in order to stay environmentally friendly.Lights are kept up for about two weeks and turned on for a few hours each evening. Major streets in the vicinity are closed to auto traffic during these hours to allow pedestrians to fill the streets and enjoy the lights. It is viewed by about three to five million people each year.

Ikuta Shrine (生田神社, Ikuta-jinja) is a Shinto shrine in the Chūō Ward of Kobe, Japan, and is possibly among the oldest shrines in the country. It was founded by Empress Jingu when she returned from the Three Han (三韓, Korea) campaign.She was nearly shipwrecked but managed to survive thanks to praying to Watatsumi, and she made the shrine to honor him. Ikasuri Shrine and Watatsumi Shrine were both also made at the same time by the Empress.It contains the Settsu Sannomiya