Kobe Fashion Museum
Kobe Fashion Museum - read a guide to Kobe Fashion Museum and Kobe Artists Museum on Rokko Island, Kobe.
Kobe Fashion Museum
Looking like the Starship Enterprise has crash landed in Japan, this unusual building houses the Kobe Fashion Museum, the first fashion museum in Japan, located on Rokko Island, Kobe.
The permanent collection is displayed in several themed galleries, color, fabrics, structures, designers, etc and there are periodic temporary exhibitions. The Kobe Fashion Museum also houses an extensive library of fashion books and magazines in many languages.
The building is home to an "event space" and also the Kobe Artists Museum exhibiting mostly mediocre western-style art from local artists.
Both museums are open from 10:00 am to 18:00 pm.
Entrance to the Art Museum is 200 yen, and the Fashion Museum 500 yen for adults, 250 yen for kids.
The museums are closed on Wednesdays.
Kobe Fashion Museum (fashionmuseum.or.jp)
9, 2-chome
Koyocho-naka
Higashinada, Kobe
658-0032
Tel: 078 858 0050
The Kobe Fashion Museum is a couple of minutes walk from the Island Center Station of the Rokkoliner which runs from the JR Sumiyoshi Station or the Hanshin Uozaki Station.
Text + images Jake Davies
Getting to Kobe
Rail
JR Shinkansen bullet train stops at Shin-Kobe Station. About 1km south of Shin-Kobe Station, Sannomiya Station is the main rail hub for intercity Hankyu, Hanshin and JR trains to Osaka and Kyoto.
Ferry
There is a direct jet-foil boat to Kansai International Airport (KIX) from the Kobe City Air Terminal (KCAT) on Port Island, with buses to Sannomiya. There are also ferries to Beppu in Kyushu and also to Shikoku and Awaji Island (from Akashi). Ferries arrive and depart from Naka Pier, next to Port Tower, about 10 minutes south of Motomachi Station.
Air
Kobe Airport, named "Marine Air", opened February 2006 on a reclaimed island just south of Port Island.
The new airport has flights to and from seven cities: Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Naha (Okinawa), Niigata, Sapporo, Sendai and Tokyo (Haneda).
The flights are operated by JAL, ANA and Skymark. Flights run between 7 am and 9 pm.
The airport can be reached by PortLiner automated train from Sannomiya (320 yen; 16 minutes), bus, car or speed boat (30 minutes) from Kansai International Airport (service to open later in 2006). Car parking fees are presently free for 1 day and 1,000 yen per day thereafter.
Kobe Fashion Museum
