30 November, 2010

We Created a Video of Kobe, Hyogo

  Recently, the New York Times started a section on their website called “Show Us Your City.” Viewers can grab a camera, make a video of them giving a tour of their hometown, submit it to the New York Times, and they post it up on their website.

  We figured it would be a great way to introduce our prefecture to a wider audience. We also didn’t have a video for Sannomiya, so we said why not, and decided to give it a shot! We had a few locations to choose from, but we decided to go with Sannomiya. It’s the busiest area in Hyogo, and it’s also close to our office, in case we have to retake some footage since we’re total beginners. I think it ended up being a good call.

Check out the video, Discovering Kobe, from here!

  We started from the Sannomiya and Motomachi Center Arcade. This highly popular arcade is conveniently located near the station, and is filled with many stores. These are the stores we see every day, but we thought they might be interesting to people who have never seen them. If you watch the video closely, you can see posters of Orlando Bloom and Charlize Theron advertising for a clothing store called UNIQLO. It’s one of the biggest and the fastest growing clothing retail stores in the country. Have you ever heard of them?

           Anime Store                         Electronics Store    

 Next we visited one of the most popular places in Kobe, the Meriken Park. The beautiful park consists of the famous Port Tower and Kobe Maritime Museum, but there’s also a memorial park for the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake, so it’s a must visit for those who really want to know about the city.
 This is the famous view of Kobe, frequently seen on postcards, making it a popular sightseeing spot.


The Popular View of Kobe

 And finally, we introduced the Old Foreign Settlement, or the Kyu-kyoryuchi, because it is probably the most stylish part of Kobe. This area prospered because it was very close to the port and many people came from foreign countries. Their strong influence can still be seen today, with great numbers of classical European styled buildings, which is very rare in Japan. This area is known for having stylish cafés, stores, and restaurants, and I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t enjoy walking around Kyu-kyoryuchi and having a cup of coffee at one of the many cafés.

              
                             An European Style Building      A café in Motomachi    
                                    in Kyu-kyoryuchi

 Although we wanted to show more fun and interesting places around Kobe, the video had to be less than 3 minutes long. Hopefully many people will get a chance to watch the video and become interested in our amazing prefecture.


Shark (Hyogo Tourism Association)