Today I took a trip up to Rokko mountain. It's been about a year since I was up there last, and this time I wanted to check out some places that I hadn't visited as of yet.
Before heading out to the mountain, I stopped off at a tourist information center to buy the Rokko/Maya 1 day ticket. It is actually a really good deal at 1500 yen. It includes return city bus tickets from either Sannomiya or Shin-Kobe to either the Maya Viewline (Cable Car and Ropeway) or Rokko Cable Car stations. It also includes a return ticket to ride either of the above cable cars/ropeways, and unlimited hop on/off for the buses that run between the locations on the mountain itself. And, you also get discounted entrance to various facilities (generally 100 yen off) on the mountain (and apparently discounts in the restaurants as well, although I didn't utilize this particular function). This time I chose to ride the Maya line as it is the only cable car in Kobe that I haven't tried yet. And even if that were all I was to do, I would still save, as a return ticket for both sections of the line is 1540 yen. The bus on top of the mountain, depending where you want to go range from 210-500 yen per trip. So for this particular trip, the pass saved me over 1500 yen! Nice!
Going up...
Other than riding the Maya Cable Car and Ropeway, one of the main things I wanted to do was visit Rokkosan Pasture (六甲山牧場) and then if I had time the Rokko Alpine Botanical Garden (六甲山高山植物園).
As today was a national holiday in Japan, and since the weather was absolutely beautiful, I was expecting there to be quite a few people up there. And indeed, there were. At the Rokkosan Pasture, most people visiting there were families with young children, or couples out on dates. The atmosphere that they advertise creating is a Scandinavian/Alps type environment. The buildings were made for that purpose, and for authenticity? they even had a yodeling group performing at one of the entrances.
That aside, it actually is quite nice up there. There are sheep everywhere, roaming freely around the grounds, and you are free to touch and interact with them if you so choose.
"Rare sheep village" umm...ok.....
"Excuse us, comin' thru..."
In terms of other animals, they also have cows, goats, ducks, pigs, sheepdogs, rabbits and horses. Most of these are relatively accessible and the children can touch them as they please.
Just hanging out on a roof. 'cause that's what goats do...
They named this cow Lamborghini...
SO CUTE AND FLUFFY!!!
Cute!!!!
In some cases they even have various events related to the animals at certain times. There is a sheepdog show, children can ride the ponies (being led around by a staff member), there is a rabbit feeding time, and a calf feeding time as well. Twice a day they milk the cows, and for a price (200 yen), you can buy a cup of freshly milked milk. There are a few restaurants around as well offering a variety of Kobe foods (lots of Kobe beef, camembert cheese dishes, lamb dishes, Kobe wines, etc). As for me, I tried the fresh liquid yogurt drink. It was good!
Yogurt WAS here... 😜
One of the main buildings also has some various hands on experiences that one could try, such as making ice-cream or frozen yogurt (a little expensive at 850 yen), or there is a craft area where you can make these little sheep using wool from the sheep there, and there is also a cheese making experience as well.
The thing that I liked the most was just the general area. There were lots of grassy hills and some beautiful views!
Reminds me a bit of some areas in NZ...
After wandering around in the pasture area for a while, I went out to the Rokko Alpine Botanical Garden. It's actually within a 5 minute walk from the Music Box Museum (where I went last year). I didn't realize they were quite so close to one another. It was nice, but a bit of a let down. It was considerably smaller than expected (although that may have been due to the fact some areas were closed off due to damage from the weather we've had this year), and there wasn't actually much to see. But...that also might be because we're kind of in between summer and fall at the moment.
Insect eaters!
After that I took a bit of a walk before getting back to the bus to take me back to the Maya Ropeway.
My original plan for the rest of the time was to enjoy the views until sunset (it was looking like it would be a nice one with the skies the way they were today) and then go back down the mountain. However, since I seem to be starting to get a little bit sick and was getting tired, I decided I didn't want to wait another hour for sunset, and I just went back down. But...I did get to enjoy the sunset a little bit once I was back down the mountain. And, as expected, the colors were really nice tonight!
Time to go home...
The view from the top of the Maya Ropeway. It was so clear today, you can see all the way to Osaka!
