Kobe

Kobe needs 2 days: the Port Tower and the Meriken Park waterfront on one, and a meal of Kobe beef -certified, with each animal traceable- at a specialty restaurant in the Sannomiya district, on the other. March-May and October-November bring the mildest weather. It's expensive if it includes a genuine Kobe beef meal, which can cost the equivalent of a multi-course dinner in Europe. It was one of the first Japanese ports opened to foreign trade in 1868, giving it a cosmopolitan character uncommon in Japan, and its beef, protected by a strict designation of origin requiring Tajima cattle to be raised in Hyogo prefecture, is one of the most regulated and counterfeited outside its borders.