In a nutshellA pleasant stroll through Meriken Park, a place that is very dear to the citizens of Kobe and popular with tourists that are attracted here every day by the majestic tower on the port, one of the city’s icons. Then we will enjoy a glimpse of local life at the colourful Uonotana fish market, packed with fishmongers.

Main stops

Meriken Park: Modern art installations
Kobe Port Tower: tubular drum structure, symbol of the city
Uonotana fish market (free time)

The programme

We will board our coach for a short journey to Meriken Park, a lovely seafront park in the port area. Created on a reclaimed area, it is an attractive lawn dotted with fountains and modern art installations. Although it was devastated by the earthquake in 1995 along with the majority of the city, the park was quickly restored and is once again an unmissable stop for tourists and a meeting point for the locals of Kobe.
Inside the park, we can admire the Kobe Port Tower, a cylinder surrounded by a red pipe structure in the shape of a Japanese traditional drum. 108 metres high, the tower has become an icon of Kobe’s skyline and an attraction for tourists from all over the world, as well as winning the 15th Architectural Institute of Japan Best Work Award in 1963. The tower was initially meant to be silver but it was soon replaced with red to make it more visible to aircraft.
We will leave the park and take the coach to the important Uonotana fish market, which supplies the majority of the restaurants in Kyoto and Kobe. The fish is extremely fresh here and it is easy to find various types of fish, octopus and crabs still alive on the numerous fishmonger stalls that abound in this 350-metre-long gallery.

Good to know

Heavy traffic is to be expected as it is travel season in Japan.
Money cannot be exchanged at the port; we recommend buying Japanese currency beforehand.
Visibility during the tour is subject to weather conditions.