I went to Kobe Minato Matsuri to look for things with a Nishinomiya connection, so here’s the article. Kobe Minato Matsuri is held at Meriken Park. It’s also happening on 7/15, so hopefully this helps if you’re thinking of going.
If you keep walking south from Sannomiya Station, you’ll end up somewhere like this.
Somehow, we’ve arrived at the port!! A boat with “PILOT” written on it. I wondered, “What is that?” and looked it up… Apparently, it’s a boat that carries pilots(marine pilots), who safely guide large ships and other vessels when they enter the port.
On that boat, I spotted something that felt very Nishinomiya. Take a close look.
FURUNO
Probably a radar made by Furuno Electric. The technology of Furuno Electric, a world-class company Nishinomiya can be proud of, is helping protect Kobe’s port.
All the boats around here had Furuno Electric radar on them. If you look closely, maybe most boats have them
This isn’t especially Nishinomiya-like, but somehow this Jizo statue feels like it has some kind of connection to us. The words “Meriken Jizoson” are kind of funny
We arrived at Meriken Park! You can see a huge rock-like thing.
Apparently it’s a giant carp sculpture. It’s 22 meters tall. It seems to have been supervised by Tadao Ando. So that makes it a Nishinomiya point!
There are quite a few buildings in Nishinomiya designed by Tadao Ando, including the Shellfish Museum in Nishinomiya Hama, Nouvelle in Koshienguchi, the Mitsumame Coffee building in Najio, Gallery Chiisai Me in Shukugawa, and more.
We made it into the venue. That familiar Kobe-like view. Too bad the weather was cloudy
Kobe Port Tower! There were lots of food trucks too.
Red Bull. Not much of a Nishinomiya element here.
Found a Nishinomiya point~~~! It’s Grill Ippei, a Western-style restaurant that opened in Hanshin Nishinomiya in 2022! It’s a super famous restaurant originally based in Kobe.
↑ Grill Ippei in Nishinomiya even made a “Nishitsu Set” for us, and they also came to this year’s Hakushika brewery opening event.
Filet Cutlet Sandwich 2,200 yen(tax included)
A cutlet sandwich you can’t get at the restaurant, only here. Grill Ippei kindly let us try one!!!!!
Even though it’s this thick, your teeth go right through it! So tender, so good~~~~ This is an outstanding cutlet sandwich. I really hope people get to try this serious cutlet sandwich from a proper Western-style restaurant. They’ll be there on July 15 too.
This is the thing people call “BE KOBE.” It’s a photo spot in Kobe. It’d be nice if Nishinomiya had something like this too.
Grass. Starbucks. Port Tower. Love this contrast.
The location is Mosaic. Apparently there’s also a Nishinomiya spot here, so…
Nishinomiya point! Apparently, this is the place where Taniguchi gets rejected by Haruhi in episode 1 of “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya,” an anime set in Nishinomiya. The scene was so brief that I didn’t remember it at all. It definitely does have a date spot kind of feel
This structure is the oldest existing signal station at Kobe Port. Apparently it’s considered a historic building, and there’s a manually operated elevator inside. What does “manual” even mean?
Some of you might be thinking, “Wow, Mosaic brings back memories,” so here you go. I used to come here every now and then too, so it had been a while
The final Nishinomiya point. There was Shizuya, the dagashi candy shop that’s also in LaLaport Koshien.
At Kosoku Kobe Station, I saw Hanshin Railway and Hankyu Railway trains lined up together for the first time, and I was moved. This is a hidden Kobe point you can’t see in Nishinomiya.
In Closing
For a change, I went somewhere outside Nishinomiya, to nearby Kobe. I don’t really have a good sense of Kobe’s geography, but that actually made it more fun. I got pretty wet from the rain along the way, but including that, it’s nice to go somewhere different once in a while.
