Free Shuttle Bus between Motomachi Shopping Street and UMIE

With the key words “umie”, “motomachi”, and “bus”, you can find a web page of the free shuttle bus which runs between Umie, a shopping mall at Kobe Harborland, and the western end of Motomachi Shopping Street on weekdays.

 I was on business and had to kill an hour or so around the western half of Motomachi Shopping Street.  I walked through the streets for 3 blocks, and found a cup of coffee cost cheaper as I walked westward.  I walked to the western end of the street and had a cup of coffee at TuKuRu.

On TripAdvisor, Kobe Motomachi Shopping Street is ranked #40 out of 762 attractions in Kobe.  66 travelers have posted their reviews about the street in English.  Along the street, however, only 2 attractions are listed on TripAdvisor; Kobe Fugetsudo Museum, which is ranked #119 out of 762 attractions in Kobe and which have had only 1 review in English, and Gallery Miyake,#412, which has no review in any language.  Even Motomachitaki Park, which is listed on Google Map, isn’t listed on TripAdvisor.  Hanakuma Park is just across the railway, and you can have a good view over the downtown of Motomachi from the top of the park, which used to be Hanakuma Castle.

Not all the restaurants along the street are listed.  Only a few of them have reviews.  Some reviewers of the shopping street sound to have just strolled through it, regretting that they found fewer people as they walked to the western end of the street.

If the shopping mall wants to attract more people into walking through the street, they have to list all the attractions along and around the street, and of course, have to list the shuttle bus system mentioned above in English for themselves.