Rokko Meets Art is a yearly exhibition of modern art spread around the natural sites of Kobe’s Mount Rokko.
- Rokko Meets Art 2022 schedule and prices
- August 27th until November 23rd
- The Rokko Meets Art viewing passport is ¥2500 for adults and children (4~12 y.o) is ¥1000. If you want access to the special night illuminations walk ”Hikari-no-Mori” tickets will be $3300 adults and ¥1400 children. Discounts available depending on your mode of transportation.
- For ticketing info visit https://www.rokkosan.com/art2022/ticket/?lang=en
- Places: Rokko Cable, Mount Rokko Visitor Center, Rokkosan Silence Resort, Rokko Musical Box Museum, Rokko Alpine Botanical Garden, Rokko Garden Terrace, Rokko-Shidare Observatory, Rokko Arima Ropeway, Grand Hotel Rokko Skyvilla, Chapel of the Wind Area
In 2017 we spent a whole day exploring this great modern art exhibition in nature. While the exhibits are different from year to year the path you take and procedures are similar.
Rokko Meets Art Guide.
October 9th 2017 was Japan’s Sports Day public holiday and we thought it would be a great chance to escape the city and get up into the mountains for a nice walk while enjoying the sights of Mt. Rokko and the Rokko Meets Art 2017 event. 36 pieces of art are scattered over the various sites of Mt Rokko.
Rokko Cable Car
We started the journey at 11am at Hanshin Mikage Station and jumped on Kobe City Bus No. 16 which takes about 30 minutes and heads up to the Rokko Cable Car.
There are various ticket / package options to choose from when heading up the mountain. We went with the ¥1350 OmoteRokko Tour Ticket which gets you a return cable car ride and free bus trips from various sites around Rokko Mountain.
The cable car ride takes about 10 minutes and you’ll arrive at the Rokko Sanjo Station. Once you arrive you should get your Rokko Meets Art viewing ticket which grants you access into the 4 main venues plus the official guide map. Separately, entry to these places will set you back more so during the Rokko Meets Art you can save a bit of coin plus making it more convenient.
Rokko Sanjo Station | Tenran Cafe & Observatory
Our first stop on Rokko was the Space White Cafe which is this all white styrofoam space. You have to put little shoe covers on to enter. After taking some pics in here we choose to go across the road to the Tanren Cafe to eat lunch. The pasta lunch was decent for ¥1350 and the Rokkosan Beer went down well for ¥650.
After lunch it was time to hit the road. Make sure you check the bus timetables as most run 20 minutes apart. If it’s a weekend or public holiday there could be long queues meaning you’ll have to wait until the next bus which can get quite tiresome.1
Rokko International Musical Box Museum
This was, umm, how do I put this, unique?! There are a variety of wonderful and some just creepy music boxes from around the world. The 3 floor building has a variety of rooms but explanations, in either English and Japanese, were lacking. There was a souvenir shop, cafe and a pleasant outside garden with a pond.
Around 5 “pieces” of art were located in this area. Entry was included in the Rokko Meets Art ticket but without that the ¥1030 entry fee seems a bit steep for what’s on offer, unless of course you are a fan of music boxes.
From here we walked through the “Inter-world-sway” (large plastic balls?) exhibit to the botanical garden.
Rokko Alpine Botanical Garden
Arriving at the West entrance, we showed our ticket, got our stamp and entered the botanical garden. A shop and restrooms are on the right. The shop sells flower and plant based gifts. About 10 exhibits are located through the gardens and it’s a nice walk around the area. Already a few Autumn colours were appearing. We were told this is Japan’s oldest botanical garden, with about 1500 plants from alpine regions around the world.
After you have explored the garden you can head out the East gate where you will find a cafe. From here you can walk up to the left, past the car park and keep walking until you reach the next destination
Rokkosan Country House
Show your ticket, get your stamp and now your 3 down and one to go. The country house was busy with families having a picnic, couples and dog lovers. Coming from Australia, a space like this will probably be free to enter, perhaps paying a small fee to hire a paddle boat or enter the trampoline area. Again, without the ticket the regular entry fee of ¥620 for an adult and ¥310 for a child seems a bit steep.
Seven art sculptures, cafe, restaurant and BBQ area. The “Rokko-Hai-Cheese” sculpture by a local high school art club was quite impressive. It was nice to relax on some grass and just look up to the sky and enjoy the fresh air.
The rose garden, contained a photo exhibition by Kotori Kawashima, weaved under the chair lift which we skipped and walked up to our final spot.
Rokko Garden Terrace & Rokko-Shidare Observatory
Time for a beer at the Rokko View Palace enjoying the amazing views over the bay looking across to Osaka. The recommended time to explore the museum, garden and country house is about 60 minutes for each. However, we breezed through the museum in less than 30 minutes, took about 40 minutes in the botanical garden, and about on par with the country house. So we had a couple of hours to kill until the sunset and we could see the “10 million dollar night view”.
After browsing a few little shops including the Rokko Stone Accessory Shop and Shop Horti, we entered the Observatory and got our last stamp. This is an impressive structure, the photos describe this a lot better than I can. View all the different rooms and use the binoculars at one level to spot the “404” sign.
Deciding if we were going to stay here to watch the sunset or head elsewhere our thirst for another beer got the best of us so we headed to the Food Terrace where we got a beer and some chips and watched the sun go down and the city lights appear. Romantic!
The view tower had a sound and light display and this was the last piece of art we saw before catching the bus back to the Cable Car Station around 6:30pm. It was starting to get a bit chilly up on the mountain at this time. We walked roughly 10km for the day and enjoyed the, sometimes odd, art objects surrounded by nature.
Let us know if you have visited Rokko Meets Art!
