Kobe Earthquake Museum

The first stop on the Kobe tour was a memorial / museum dedicated to the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which took place in 1995. I didn't remember hearing much about this taking place, and the more I learned about it the more it seemed to parallel our semi-recent Katrina natural disaster.

I'm not sure if we happened to visit at an odd time (12:30?) or what, but A and I were the only two visitors in the group. We were significantly outnumbered by the museum staff that was supposed to be watching over us, which was a little awkward at times, but after watching two movies we were released to browse the collection of items and photos taken in the aftermath of the quake.

One of the more interesting sections of the museum was how to avoid similar disasters in the future. The event will still happen, but if people are prepared and buildings are designed with earthquakes in mind, the impact will be greatly decreased. The museum had a few hands-on engineering demos where the importance of cross-bracing and isolated foundations was highlighted in nice, simple terms.

The museum was interesting, but if you're looking for must-see attractions in Kobe this might not be it. While they were very accommodating of English speakers, the content may not be appealing enough to warrant time in a limited schedule. For my part, I'm still glad I went!