Kobe

It was one very long day - we started very early in the morning, to catch the first bus to Tokyo at 6.03 a.m., so as not to miss the second earliest Shinkansen Hikari at 7.03 a.m. In a touch-n-go manner, we stopped at Kyoto and went to Kinkakuji, then took a few trains to go to Universal City, in Osaka, followed by a few more to go to Sannomiya, from where we boarded a taxi to go to Kobe Mosque.

Kobe Mosque is the oldest mosque in Japan. It was built in 1935, three years earlier than the old Tokyo Mosque (1938 - 1985), and it remained standing, surviving two historical moments when all the buildings next to it were completely destroyed. It first survived the bombings in 1945 during World War II, with destroyed windows, and some cracks in the outer walls, all blackened by smoke. During World War II, the mosque was used by Japanese Military as a shelter during Allied bombing raids, but later returned to the Muslims after the war was over, and oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait helped to restore it.

The mosque also survived The Great Kobe Earthquake in 1995 in which about 180,000 buildings were damaged, 5,000 people died, 35,000 were injured and 300,000 were left homeless. The fact that the Mosque survived was widely covered in the media back then and it became a refuge for Muslims survivors.

It was not a surprise to note that this mosque is popular among tourists. When we were there, we met non-Muslim Nihonjin tourists from Tokyo, Malaysian tourists from Beppu, Kyushu, as well as non-Muslim foreigners - all fascinated with its beautiful architecture and amazing history. (The locals also go there to shop at the halal shop located right across the mosque. Halal Kobe beef is a huge hit, and halal Kobe chicken is far superior in size and taste than the normal halal Brazilian chicken found in most halal shops throughout Japan)