The Kobe Luminarie light festival is not exactly a Christmas related illumination event. The lights are a memorial to the Hanshin earthquake in 1995 which claimed over 6000 lives and devastated Kobe. A tragic event that was but Kobe has managed to rebuilt itself and standing strong now.

Going back in time a little here. After getting off at the Sannomiya Station, you can sorta just follow the stream of crowds and eventually there will be signs and people with signs pointing you in the right direction to see the lights.

It wasn’t hard to miss the crowd that were going to same destination ^^;.

Fancy building behind me. No way to get a closer shot as I was forced to walk in the opposite direction away from it by the crowds ^^;.

  

Getting closer and closer… there was absolutely no way to turn back now.

The display was nothing short of magnificent and beautiful. That’s all I can say about it.

Looking back from the end of the path. But this is not all there is to see.

A bit past the arches are a few more “smaller” illumination displays, starting with an enclosure/fence of sorts where you can walk inside and be surrounded 360 degrees by thousands of light bulbs.

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The rest of the displays. The illuminations start at around 5:30 PM and stays on until around 10 PM or so but sadly, it ended last Monday. Gotta wait for next year ^^;

And this is the last of the illuminations I went to. With that said, I wish you all have a Merry Christmas!