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For a visitor to Kobe, one of the special places to stay is the Hotel Okura Kobe. With a magnificent view of the harbor and the ability to effortlessly handle gaikokujin, it is an attractive hotel for even the first-time tourist to Japan. [Review]
The 14th floor room had a magnificent view of the harbor — see the photos &mdash and while not small even by American standards, the room had hosted many smokers, with yellow discoloring widespread on the ceiling and upper walls.
Service was quietly expert, though perhaps not quite as accommodating as one would expect of an Okura. The hotel itself was very much itself in the Okura fashion: it used browns and golds very effectively in the lobby area, and the proportions and detail work were very Japanese. I found the Mandarin Oriental in Miami to have a certain similar air to the Okura; although the prices were roughly comparable, the Miami Mandarin Oriental was far more magnificent.
Overall, I would classify the hotel as a lesser branch of a great city hotel. Even more than its big sister in Tokyo, the clientele seemed to be largely foreign. Certainly the staff were all comfortable speaking English.
There were only a few restaurants in the hotel, and none really comparable to an old favorite, the Orchid Room of the Tokyo branch. Although its restaurants don’t have the breadth of the Tokyo branch, the food was certainly quite good.
As to restaurants outside the hotel, it is the usual Japanese multitude of places although walking to them involved a bit of maneuvering. We particularly enjoyed a small gyouza restaurant that featured not only handmade gyouza but also a very popular minced beef udon dish. We could see it was very popular because even though it was just before 2:00pm, the restaurant was packed with ladies, many of whom were eating this dish. We enjoyed watching the gyouza being made by with a hand-drive machine right in the middle of the very small open kitchen.
Kobe is a pleasant port city, and there is a discernible foreign population; this is not unexpected since Kobe has a history as a place for foreigners in Japan. There are some fine historical Western-style homes up in the hills that are an easy cab ride from the hotel, or an adventurous hike &mdash my recommendation is if you want to do the long walk is to do it on the return. It’s far easier walking downhill to the hotel than uphill to the historical district, and there are a plentitude of intriguing restaurants along the way that could let an afternoon jaunt become an evening out.
