When heading towards the Rokko mountains, you will cross a lot of Western influenced areas called Ijinkan and will reach a vantage point offering a beautiful panorama on the city.
 

The Ijinkan districts are warmly recommended when it comes to sight-seeing. Between the Meiji era and the early Showa era, many foreigners used to live in Kobe, which was the most important commercial port of Japan.

Many of them built houses in the Kitano district, it is said that over 200 buildings were there. However, the American military raids during the Pacific War, and then the destruction of many of these houses for urban development in the 60s and 70s caused the district shrinked a lot. Afterward, a movement of conservation and preservation of these buildings started. Moreover, a law was made to protect cultural properties and support the movement.

On top of protecting Ijinkan, a lot of restaurants and cafés were opened, and the promotion of the region towards tourists was accentuated. Nowadays, this district has grown a very popular neighborhood and drags many visitors.
 

Ijinkan, shown above, is the district that was partially built by many Europeans. However, there is also an other foreign influenced district, Kobe's Chinatown : Kobe Nankinmachi, one of the three biggest Chinatowns in Japan with those of Yokohama and Nagasaki.
 

There, you can find many Chinese restaurants, street food but also many market stands selling Chinese ingredients and products. We warmly recommend that you have a walk while trying many different foods. There also is the shop of the Japanese butaman creator (sort of pork stuffed brioche bread) as well as the best recipe for pork belly. The typical Chinese urban landscape is worse a nice walk along these areas.