TID Travel Journal "A Demonstration Cruise in Kobe Port"   By TID, Spring 2007 update

In the morning of March 6, I was invited to a demonstration cruise in Kobe Port that was sponsored by the Seaside Area centering the Naka Pier Revitalizing Promotion Committee". This event was supported by the Kobe Maritime Public Relations Association. The ship's name was "the Fantasy" and was operated by the Kobe Sea-bus Division of Hayakoma Unyu Co., Ltd. (http://www.kobe-seabus.com/index.html). Volunteer guides, local government officials, and people from tourism related organizations had also been invited to the ship.

Representatives from the sponsoring and supporting organization gave welcome speeches. Then the representative of three committee members gave presentations on their cruising programs in Kobe Port.

The "Fantasy" started from Kamomeria Pier, Nakatottei Chuo Terminal and took the guests on a 90 minutes cruise. Due to the bad weather the waves were rather high but I was able to see some well-known scenes of Kobe Port. The main tourism spots on the cruise were Kobe Airport (Marine Air), Kobe Sky Bridge( length 1,190m), Kawasaki and Mitsubishi Shipyards, the east lighthouse of the first break water in Kobe Port, Pearl Bridge, and newly build three universities on Port Island.

The boat headed south and I saw the Kobe Shipyard of the Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation, which was founded by Mr. Shozo Kawasaki in 1878. Since then various ships have been constructed includning bulk carrier, LNG ships, LPG ship, Oil Tankers, container ships, car carriers, high-speed passenger ship, sub-marine. In 2006 alone Kawasaki launched six ships there.

Then the boat moved on to the offing of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works. This shipyard was founded in 1905 and now is home to ships, car carriers, submarines and dredgers, an atomic power generation plant, space engineering related products. While there we saw a containership ordered by Evergreen that was moored at their pier and was under rigging. Then the ship turned east and Kobe Airport came into view on our right. This airport opened last year and now connects with seven cities in Japan: Sapporo, Sendai, Niigata, Tokyo, Kumamoto, Kagoshima and Naha. According to statistics published by Kobe City, the total number of passengers arriving and departing the airport for a year since the opening was 2,697,279. The most common destination was Tokyo(47.5%), followed by Naha (20.9%), Sapporo (18.9%), Kagoshima (6.9%), Sendai (3.6%), Kumamoto (1.2%) and Niigata (1.0%). After that our boat turned 180 degrees and started heading west.

I was surprised and impressed to see the changed scenes of the west side of the Port Island. At the first stage this area was reclaimed to meet with the developing trend of containerization and five full-scale container berths have been constructed and are used by leading shipping companies in the world. But the water in this area is rather shallow and the shipping companies were obliged to move their berths to other piers such as the Rokko Island and the Port Island phase II areas.

To use the vacant land effectively Kobe City Government decided to invite three universities to this area. Kobe Gakuin University, Kobe Shukugawa Gakuin University and the Hyogo College of Medicine will open their campuses there this April.

Then our ship passed under the Kobe Ohashi Bridge and moved to the southern part of the Shinko Pier. This pier used to be comb-shaped, but after the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake the waterway was reclaimed. Now this area is mainly used as the auto auction site. Twelve auto auction companies and fourteen car export related companies are concentrated there. 132,200 cars were exported from Kobe Port in 2006 putting Kobe in 3rd place after Yokohama and Nagoya. These cars are exported to UAE, Russia, New Zealand, and other countries. Our ship turned 180 degrees again and started heading back to the starting point. The boat arrived at the Kamomeria as scheduled.

The data of the ship are as follows.
Gross tonnage: 152 tons Length: 32m
Width: 7m Depth: 2.9m
Horsepower: 1,100PS Cruising speed: 14.3 knots
Capacity: 300

In Kobe Port other cruising companies operate cruising business as below. According to the statistics revealed by Port and Harbor Bureau of Kobe City, the number of passengers who took a cruise of Kobe Port in 2005 reached 224,748. I highly recommend you enjoy a romantic cruise on the beautiful Kobe Port.

Attached Table

[Kobe Cruiser Inc.]

Tel:	078-360-5600
URL:	http://www.kobeconcerto.com/English/index.asp
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge cruise *Lunch Cruise 105 minutes *Tea Cruise 90 minutes *Dinner Cruise 105 minutes

[Luminous Cruising Co., Ltd]

Tel:	078-333-8414
URL:	http://www.luminouskobe.co.jp (Japanese & English)
*Akashi Kaikyo Bridge round trip 140 minutes *Osaka Bay Round Cruise (Kobe Airport Offing round trip) 90 minutes

[Kobe Bay Cruise]

Tel:	078-360-0039
URL:	http://www.kobebayc.co.jp (Japanese only)
*Kobe Airport Round Cruise 85 minutes *Sumaoki Round Cruise 70 minutes *Rokko Island Round Cruise 75 minutes