Finally we did it – we succeeded to visit Kobe Luminarie 2010 (for pictures from 2009 click here and here). Only 25-30 min walking from Kobe Motomachi station and the fairy tail of light begins:
This is the main entrance. After it there is almost a kilometer long street covered in light arcades. Every year the design is different. The crowds are big but never monsters. You have a nice classical music in the background.
One important point about Kobe Luminarie is that it has nothing to do with Christmas. The timing is just a coincidence. The main reason for the creation of the Luminarie was to help reinvigorate Kobe after the devastating earthquake of 1995. The entrance is free but even now there are people with boxes collecting money from the visitors. I think the main purpose of the event nowadays is to commemorate the victims of the earthquake.
After the entrance street comes the “citadel”:
The previous year the structure was much more “light” in comparison with the more robust from this one. Here is a picture for comparison:
The new one indeed looks to me like a citadel – build to resist and defend weather the old one is more like a castle from a fairy tail story.
Anyway – in both of the “castles” you can enter:
In the center of the castle there is a small temple with a “golden” dome:
We couldn’t reach this year the “golden” temple but the last one in it there were many small bells. The people were throwing money and trying to hit some of the bells. Every time they succeed you could here the sound of the bell. By the way it was not easy at all to hit one – theey were just too small so one had to use many rounds of “munitions” – especially the kids (sponsored by their parents). I suppose this was one of the strategies to raise additional funding for the event.
If you want to see photos from inside the “castle” please follow the links to 2009 Luminarie – link 1 and link 2 (the same as in the beginning of the post).
Here are several more photos from the intricate pattern of the “citadel” and the surroundings:
