Sit in the last Lockheed monorail
Himeji · Tegarayama Kōryū Station · Free
Only in Hyogo
42 unique things to do. 125 in total
Cities inside Hyogo
42 unique things across 2 cities
Swing the longest monkey bars
Kobe · Sunshine Wharf Kobe · Free
The only one on Earth
Watch bean paste being made, then go round the world's first azuki museum
Himeji · Gozasoro Azuki Museum
Climb an original 1609 castle keep in your socks
Himeji · Himeji Castle
Eat ekisoba standing on the platform where it was invented
Himeji · Maneki no Ekisoba, JR Himeji Station platform stand
Walk into Japan's first mosque, free
Kobe · Kobe Muslim Mosque · Free
Handle the tools in Japan's only museum of carpentry tools
Kobe · Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum
Ride Japan's last carlator, a conveyor belt up a mountain
Kobe · Sumaura Sanjo Amusement Park
The only one in Japan
Step into Japan's oldest surviving farmhouse, on weekends only
Kobe · Hakogi House
Watch Japan's oldest working planetarium projector, on the line that sets Japan's clocks
Kobe · Akashi Municipal Planetarium
The only one in Japan
Eat doroyaki at the Himeji shop that invented it
Himeji · Nanpū Himeji Honten
The only one in Japan
Make a leather piece in the district that tans most of Japan's cowhide
Himeji · Pelletteria
The only one in Japan
Walk from the bullet-train station to a sacred waterfall and Japan's first concrete gravity dam
Kobe · Gohonmatsu Dam · Free
The only one in Japan
Walk through Japan's first modern river tunnel on an open Saturday
Kobe · Minatogawa Tunnel · Free
Tour Koshien, the stadium every Japanese high-school player dreams of reaching
Kobe · The Museum of Hanshin Koshien Stadium
Step into a 15th-century farmhouse just recommended as a National Treasure
Himeji · Furui Family House · Free
The only one in Japan
Find Arima's pop-up doll brushes at the one shop that still makes them
Kobe · Haifukiya Nishida Fudeten
Run, or watch, the dawn sprint for Lucky Man at Nishinomiya Shrine
Kobe · Nishinomiya Shrine · Free · Seasonal
The only one in Japan
See a premiere at the Takarazuka Revue's home theatre
Kobe · Takarazuka Grand Theater
The only one in Japan
Watch coopers build a sake cask in Japan's biggest sake district
Kobe · Kiku-Masamune Tarusake Meister Factory · Free
Climb to the top of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge's main tower
Kobe · Bridge Exhibition Center · Seasonal
Climb a kofun restored to look as it did when it was built
Kobe · Goshikizuka Tumulus · Free
The only one in Japan
Walk the dormitory rooms of the only emigrant hostel left in Japan
Kobe · Kobe Center for Overseas Migration and Cultural Interaction · Free
Go inside a working shipyard to the only intact shogunate battery of its kind
Kobe · Wadamisaki Battery · Free
The only one in Japan
Drink stone-ground coffee from the shop that advertised Japan's first cup
Kobe · Hokodo Coffee
Drink from the carbonated spring, then eat the rice cracker it invented
Kobe · Tansan Spring Park · Free
Bathe in both of Arima's waters: the brown kinsen and the clear ginsen
Kobe · Arima Onsen Kin no Yu
The only one in Japan
Stand in silence at 5:46 among 6,000 bamboo lanterns on 17 January
Kobe · Higashi Yuenchi Park · Free · Seasonal
The only one in Hyogo
Eat oden with grated ginger and soy, the Himeji way
Himeji · Nadagiku Kappatei
Get a guided walk through the Foreign Cemetery on one of twelve open days
Kobe · Kobe Municipal Foreign Cemetery · Free · Seasonal
The only one in Hyogo
Eat hinepon, old laying hen with ponzu, in the egg-farming country that invented it
Himeji · Yakitori Kimura
The only one in Hyogo
Watch three portable shrines smashed together at the Nada Fighting Festival
Himeji · Matsubarahachiman Shrine · Free · Seasonal
Watch seven torch-bearing oni dance at Nagata Shrine on Setsubun, with no beans thrown
Kobe · Nagata Jinja · Free · Seasonal
Catch the daily 2 pm rakugo matinee in the old entertainment district
Kobe · Kobe Shinkaichi Kirakukan
Dip your takoyaki in sauce, then in dashi, at the shop where customers started it
Himeji · Himeji Takopii
The only one in Hyogo
Climb Takatori-yama before breakfast and sign the teahouse book
Kobe · Takatoriyama · Free
The only one in Hyogo
Watch the red and blue oni dance on Mt Shosha on 18 January
Himeji · Engyōji · Seasonal
The only one in Hyogo
Order almond toast with your morning coffee, the Banshū café standard
Himeji · Sabō Tairiku Honten
The only one in Hyogo
Eat akashiyaki dipped in dashi, which locals call tamagoyaki
Kobe · Uonotana Shotengai
Walk Kobe Luminarie in its new late-January slot, after the memorial
Kobe · Meriken Park · Seasonal
Watch geiko dressed as bath-women cool the year's first hot water on 2 January
Kobe · Onsenji · Free · Seasonal
That is everything here for now.