This is one of the nicest earthquake exhibitions in Japan. Takes about an hour or 1.5 hours for the whole journey. First you will usher to a dark room to watch the events before earthquake itself. After that to another hall to watch a show about the victim how she grew up with that earthquake experience. Is quite emotional even though I don’t speak Japanese. The English translation is good enough. Can understand the pain they went through. I was in my young age when I watched the news .
After that. You can walk to the port to see the actual earthquake site and short write-up. Happens to have an event as well. A nice walk to the port
Visiting the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution was a sobering experience. The exhibits do a good job of showing the масштаb...
Honestly the experience is a bit heavy and serious for me, it's not what I expected before visiting, so you may need to prepare yourself before going. It's an emotional journey filled with lot of sadness and memories, with lot of photos, videos, interviews related to the disaster, people suffering and rebuild the city. I hope there are more interactive installation and information to enhance the experience. It was weekend but not much people visiting.
A really world class series of displays, video presentations and interactive exhibits, many of which have inscriptions or audio in English. Also great to talk with a few wonderful and knowledgeable senior volunteers who speak english too. An essential visit for anyone passing through Kobe/Osaka and for me, as memorable as the atomic bomb museums in both Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I’d recommend spending at least three or four hours here to fully appreciate it.
Again, it is better for you if you could understand Japanese to visit this museum, for video watching they could provide you with translation, yet for the interactive display and some games, they only provide it in Japanese.
I will highly recommend you to buy the full fare ticket for both the East and West Buildings, on the 1st floor some interactive games are provided, then you will be guided to the 4th floor, watching 2 videos about the 1995 Kobe Awaji earthquake. After that you are free to visit other floors.
You will be amazed how Japanese are preparing for the great earthquake to come, and how endurance are they in facing big natural disasters. As Japan is their home, they will not leave their country, that is why they are preparing everything so that they will continue to live here.
