Kobe Nunobiki Herb Garden

The ropeway offers an elegant 10-minute walk in the air while enjoying the view of Kobe. From the wide windows of the ropeway, you can also see famous landmarks such as “Nunobiki Falls” and the “Gohonmatsu Weir,” an important cultural asset. The ropeway is popularly known as the “Dream Balloon. Its total length (incline length) is 1,460 meters, and the difference in elevation is 330 meters.

Once you land at the top of the mountain, you will be at an altitude of about 400 meters. Here, visitors will find 12 beautiful theme gardens with a total of 75,000 blooming herbs and flowers of about 200 varieties in each of the four seasons. Hammocks are set up in various places in the garden for visitors to spend a comfortable time.

At the restaurant, you can enjoy colorful dishes inspired by the herb garden. Guests can also enjoy tea time in the luxurious café lounge or on the open-air terrace and spend an elegant day.

Located high on a mountain overlooking the city of Kobe, this typical resort facility is easily accessible from the city center.

During nighttime operations, the fantastic illumination project “Forest of Light - Forest of Illuminations” is held along with the shimmering night view of Kobe, creating a special moment.

In the Fragrance Garden, herbs, mainly lavender and chamomile, are cultivated, and visitors can enjoy the wonderful scenery and fragrance of Kobe while descending or ascending a leisurely slope.

This facility was planned in a corner of the park to emphasize the exotic atmosphere of Kobe and to help western herb culture take root in the city. From the Shinkansen Shin-Kobe Station, a two-minute walk away, visitors can take the ropeway Kobe Dream Balloon, which takes only 10 minutes to reach the summit station. Between there and Kaze no Oka Station, the Nunobiki Herb Garden (Fragrance Garden) stretches along a parkway surrounded by trees. This garden consists of an herb sample garden, lavender garden, wild flower garden, blue garden, fragrant lawn, and waterfall restaurant, and is planned so that visitors can not only see and smell the herbs, but also touch them. Since its opening, 142 varieties of herbs have added seasonal color to the garden, making it a popular tourist attraction that can be visited in combination with the Kitano Ijinkan-gai, and a scenic spot overlooking Kobe Harbor.

In the sample garden, herb guided tours are held on sunny days, where visitors can learn about the cultivation and use of herbs. There is also a woodland path, a kitchen garden, a Japanese herb garden, and a glasshouse. Inside the Fragrance Greenhouse, a statue of love donated by the city of Terni is on display, and the second floor is used as a classroom space. Visitors can also enjoy herb tea at the adjacent “Mint Café.

The Lavender Garden is located in a valley at the northern end of the Fragrant Garden, with English lavender, fringed lavender, spike lavender, and lavender hydrangea. Careful consideration was given to the spacing between the arrangements in order to create a sense of expanse and depth within the limited space. Borage is also planted as an accent, but is kept to a minimum to preserve the lavender growing environment.

The Blue Garden is a naturalistic flower garden with a blue theme. Blue flowering herbs such as catnip lavender, polygyne, periwinkle, saffron, and Mexican bush sage, as well as grasses and flowers such as delphinium, cynoglossum, lodgepole verbena, and lamb’s ear, are arranged around a sheltered deck rest area.

The Wildflower Garden Wildflower Garden is a miniature wildflower garden with a landscape reminiscent of a European meadow. It features country hedge-like masonry and is planted with herbs such as chamomile, fennel, and artichoke, as well as wildflowers such as rudbeckia, senecio, torenia, petunia, and halcyon.

The waterfall rest is the gate monument space for the Scented Garden. A gate juts out into the grove of trees, and a stepped flowerbed is decorated with damask roses, rosemary, and seasonal flowers. A central step leads up to a rest area through a curtain of water cascading down from a brick and stone wall.

The fragrant lawn is a green carpet covered with groundcover thyme creeping and other plants. The scent of thyme wafts through the air when you step on it. At the top is a rock garden with chamomile, catnip, zantolina, sage, and fennel.

Other facilities include

Forest Hall: a wooden multi-purpose hall with a 12-meter dome at its highest point.
Fragrance Museum: A museum that exhibits the history and uses of herbs.
Observation Rest House: An observation deck adjacent to the summit station of the Kobe Nunobiki Ropeway Herb Garden.
Kobe Green Shop: A store (located on the first floor) that sells items utilizing herbs, interior decorations such as stained glass windows, and confectionary for gift-giving.
Restaurant Herb Garden: A restaurant serving herb-themed cuisine (located on the second floor).
Rosemary Room: A conference room that can be rented out to the public for various seminars.
Kaze no Oka: A plaza adjacent to the “Kaze no Oka Intermediate Station” of the Kobe Nunobiki Ropeway.

There are regular events and classes for making artwork using herbs.

Events:.

Chamomile Festival (April-May)
Lavender Festival (June - early July)
Basil Festival (mid-July to late July)
Rosemary Festival (September - early October)
Sage Festival (mid-October to late November)
Erica Festival (March)

Other seasonal events are also held regularly. Examples include the Spice Festival, Christmas Festival, New Year’s Day Early Opening, Herbal Seven Herbs Porridge, and Curry Festival.

Classes: The facility also offers classes for making herbal creations. The following are examples of some of the classes available for individual students.

Push-painting
Aromatic soap making
Incense making
Hand treatment

These events and classes are planned according to when the herbs are in bloom and at the appropriate harvest time. Visitors can check the schedule of events and classes to participate.