Job Discussion Forums

[Ashtonmd]

I just found out that I am moving to Kobe on Oct 31st. I am not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed. When applying for my job I put no preference on location since they said they needed people in Tokyo so I assumed that's where I would end up. And even if I didn't end up there, I figured a surprise could be nice. Then I found out I would be in the Kansai area I figured Osaka which would be fine, but I just now found out that I am going to be in Kobe.

So my questions are;

Has anyone lived in Kobe and in a few other places in Japan and actually liked Kobe over any of the others?

What is there to do there without leaving the city?

And to anyone that works for ECC - I am supposed to start in a month - is there any way I can change locations this late in the game?

Is there really a big difference between any of the larger cities?

Any positive things about the city would be great as I really do want to like it. (And I'm a veggie so Kobe beef is NOT a plus!)

I understand that it is close to Osaka, but from what I can read on here it has a totally different vibe. I am not looking to raise a family there, I just want to have a nice cultural experience and visit many local attractions - of which there don't seem to be many. I know its not the end of the world, I guess I just have the "go big or go home" mentality and really wanted a big city feel - or at least a city that my friends and family have heard of.
Lastly I know that I am going there to teach but living in a city that you don't like can affect your work. Please be honest - but do lean towards the positive!!

Thanks in advance for any advice and tips!

[J.]

Count your lucky stars! Kobe is one of the best cities in Japan, with lots of expats, a lot of places to shop, including for stuff from home from the Foreign Buyers Club, an international flavour (for Japan) and it's close enough to Kyoto and Osaka for visits. It has a much less grim look than Osaka. I haven't lived there so I don't know what temples/castles are close but you can count on your students to tell you that. Kyoto and Nara are known cultural centers, so trips there should satisfy your craving for "culture."

Kobe also has pretty good Art museums with international and Asian exhibits.

Look for traditional concerts of shamisen, shakuhachi, koto, and dance if you want to experience Japanese arts. There are always autumn concerts. Ask your older students.

[fluffyhamster]

I haven't lived in Kobe but I did visit and stay there for a week or so once. It's not quite Hong Kong, but being nestled between the sea and the hills (mountains?) does give it a bit of a vibe, and the central bits seemed pretty open/"scenic", and lively and cosmopolitan enough (I found a reasonable Maruzen bookstore in a longish shopping arcade, so I was happy (being a bibliophile)). I think I preferred it to Osaka, and believe that I for one could happily live there for at least a year or two (I'd soon be finding out about sports clubs, good bars and izakaya, cigar shops and further bookstores, music and video stores, cinemas etc), and one can get tired of the bustle even in places as "small" as Kobe, let alone Tokyo! Much as I like Tokyo, there were some things that I missed from the smaller cities that I've lived in (Obihiro in Hokkaido, with frequent visits to Sapporo; and Matsuyama in Shikoku, before living in various so-so towns in the Kanto region, most recently near but oh so far, what with the last train home being before or soon after midnight, from Omiya for several years), such as having truly local sports clubs, bars and video stores; chances are that if you move to Tokyo, you'll end up having to live in (or at least temporarily or intermittently living in) a REALLY sleepy bedTOWN and only really being able to appreciate the Big City at the weekends (or do you plan on renting in someplace chic like Omotesando straight away LOL).

[natsume]

I would absolutely love to live in Kobe, for the reasons mentioned. I think the livability coupled with the easy access to the rest of Kansai would be ideal. Plus, fairly lively expat scene. The offices of Kansai Time Out are actually in Kobe. I live in the burbs of Hamamatsu, not Godforsaken by any means, and I am a little fond of it, but I am really a city person, so where I live now are a bit too sleepy for me.

[eiyosus]

Kobe is my city of residence and I couldn�t ask for a better place to live (well, maybe Okinawa)! I�ve had three friends move to Tokyo from Kobe and ALL of them prefer Kobe. I can stay in Tokyo for about 2 days before I feel the urge to hop on the nearest bullet train and get the hell out of there! But it�s all personal preference.

As for local sight seeing spots, I�m sure there aren�t as much as in Tokyo, but really, you�d run out of places in Tokyo soon enough. Speaking from experience, once the daily grind starts, sight seeing drops in priority.

What do you want to get out of your stay in Japan? Having a �nice cultural experience� is a little broad, but most people I know agree that Tokyo isn�t a very authentic Japanese experience. It�s an authentic Tokyo experience.

I won�t lie, if you are just popping over to Japan for a year wanting a very foreign friendly trip where you�re surrounded by familiar faces and don�t have to speak Japanese, Tokyo�s the place you want to be. If you have any desire beyond that, I think you�ll enjoy Kobe as much as everybody else.

On another note, depending on how vegetarian you are (so to speak), it can be pretty difficult to stay celibate in Japan. I had a one year vegetarian penance about a year and a half ago, and let me tell you, get ready to eat a lot of side-dishes and Italian food. And get ready to be served fish when you tell people you�re a vegetarian.

[Ashtonmd]

Thank you all so far for your replies. I am starting to feel a bit better about Kobe.

In response to the above post - I know that once I'm in the daily grind there wont be a lot of spare time, however I am not the type to stay in my apartment and just play on the computer or watch tv. Not to mention on my days off I would like to be doing things! And there doesn't seem to be a lot of info about things to do in Kobe - hence my asking and concern.

As per a foreign friendly trip - that is NOT what I am after. I want to learn Japanese, experience their customs and traditions and just live a general Japanese lifestyle. And while I state I am a vegetarian, it is solely because I do not like the taste/texture of meat, that includes fish. I am not an animal rights activist or anything and I understand and expect that there will be misunderstandings and I am prepared for that. However something that has a meat broth, or some portion of meat I can pick around, I can deal with. I have been to rural China where they didn't exactly understand the idea of a vegetarian either but I managed.

None the less I appreciate all of your comments and advice.

[Zzonkmiles]

Kobe is definitely a good place to be. The art/music scene is lively and there are a lot of good restaurants and bars there. You're close to the mountains and the beach as well. You can get to Osaka in about 30 minutes from Sannomiya Station. The city itself has about 1.3 million people. Excellent shopping too.

As for learning Japanese, it depends more on who you hang out with after work than where you actually live. Some people who live in the middle of nowhere never learn the language because they hang out with fellow English teachers after work. And others who live in places full of foreigners can rapidly improve their Japanese by hanging out with other Japanese and going to places where foreigners are less likely to hang out. How much Japanese you learn is up to you.

Be happy with Kobe. You could EASILY do worse. A lot of people think of Osaka as the crown jewel of Kansai. While Osaka certainly has lots to do, I think Kobe has more to do for its size. A lot of Osaka is very dirty and plain, especially in the southern and eastern parts of the city.

[Brooks]

well my Japanese wife would prefer to live in Kobe, but we live in Kanagawa because that is where the jobs are (the Tokyo area).
Heck, even my wife's mother would rather live in Kobe than in Osaka.

I applied for a job in Kobe and I would be lucky to get an interview. It is hard to get a decent job there.

Kobe has stuff to do and is not too big or small.
For cultural stuff, just hop on a train and go to Nara or Kyoto.

For vegetarian food, Kyoto is the place to go.

[flyer]

Yes, I don't know why the starter of this thread has (or seems to have?) a negative view of Kobe

I have visited Kobe and I liked it, and I can't recalled ever hearing anything bad about the city

If you don't like Kobe you probably won't like it in any other J city either?

[Apsara]

It does seem to be one of the pleasanter cities in Japan to live in. The only negative thing I remember hearing about it is that there was a huge earthquake there in 1995...

Still though that isn't a reason to avoid the place as Tokyo is far more earthquake-prone.

[gonzarelli]

I loved Kobe when I visited there a few years ago. It's a really pretty place. I wouldn't be upset at moving there. Maybe it's a big far from Tokyo but with Osaka same difference.

[gaijinalways]

The main things I have heard about Kobe are that it was rated by foreigners and Japanese alike as a very attractive place for living.

The Japanese also think it's attractive for visiting, but I would think most of the foreigners would dismiss it with Kyoto and Nara in the same vicinity.

You could definately do worse. As to Tokyo not being a Japanese experience, not sure how it couldn't be. Last I noticed outside my window, it's mostly Japanese living here. Certainly a lot more to do here than in Kobe, but when you're working and living here, time and money have a way of limiting what you can do in your spare moments.

[TokyoLiz]

Kobe is central, scenic and modern (thanks to the earthquake leveling lots of it, unfortunately). You're 30 minutes from Osaka, an hour from Kyoto. All-you-can-eat Japanese culture, architecture, museums and modern life.

I like what eiyosus said - Tokyo provides you an authentic Tokyo experience. Tokyo could be urban anywhere with a lot of Japanese people. The Tokyo area has a sprinkling of cultural hot sauce over a vast expanse of mayonnaise.

Food metaphors...I need lunch or something.

[SeasonedVet]

Please permit me to break with others here. I don't think Kobe is "all that" to use a modern expression. It ain't bad but I happen to think that it is one of a number of things in Japan that are overrated.

It is true that Kobe gets good reviews from "foreigners" here. However if you carry out a survey among Kansai Japanese people how many of them would say yes to wanting to live there. I think for them -as somebody said earlier- they like to visit.
I think it is the prestiege. One of the reasons why "foreigners" like it too, but just one.

[SeasonedVet]