Kobe or Nara?

Kobe at least has a beach. Suma's long stretch of sand is a short train ride from the centre and makes for a proper summer swim in July and August, and Awaji Island across the strait has quieter shores with clearer water. Nara has nothing of the kind: it sits in an inland basin, so a swim means a hotel pool or a long trip to the coast.

Kobe is the stronger place to eat by some distance. Beyond its famous beef there is a port city's baking tradition in Motomachi and Kitano, steamed buns in Nankinmachi, sobameshi and the brewery tasting rooms of Nada, with plenty of good casual eating around the stations.

Nara's cooking is distinctive but narrow: persimmon-leaf sushi, narazuke pickles, Miwa somen noodles and serious summer kakigori, with local sake poured in Naramachi. Many kitchens close early, and for a serious dinner people often take the train to Osaka or Kyoto.

Here Nara is in a different league. As Japan's eighth-century capital it has the Great Buddha hall of Todai-ji, Kofuku-ji's pagoda, the lantern-lined approach to Kasuga Taisha, Toshodai-ji and Yakushiji, and one of the country's finest collections of Buddhist sculpture. That is enough for two or three unhurried days.

Kobe tells a younger, smaller story: the Western merchant houses of Kitano, Ikuta Shrine, the broken quay at Meriken Park and a moving museum of the 1995 earthquake, with Tadao Ando's art museum on the bay. It is an interesting city to look around, but not one to travel to for its heritage.

Neither city is a clubbing destination, but Kobe at least has an evening scene. The lanes north of Sannomiya are packed with izakaya, whisky bars and tiny counters, and the lit harbour at Harborland suits a drink with a view.

Nara goes quiet once the day visitors leave, with a handful of izakaya and sake bars near Kintetsu Nara station that close early. Both look to Osaka for late nights: twenty minutes away from Kobe, but a longer ride from Nara, and the last train back sets the limit.

Kobe has more dramatic outdoors. The Rokko range rises straight behind the city, with trails from Shin-Kobe past the Nunobiki falls, ropeways up Maya and Rokko for night views over the bay, a long ridge traverse and the rocky Suma Alps.

Nara's green space is gentler and closer at hand. There are the deer-filled lawns of Nara Park, the ancient Kasugayama forest, an easy climb up Mount Wakakusa and the Yamanobe-no-michi trail past orchards and rice fields. The cherry-blossom hills of Yoshino are within reach for a day.

Both are superb bases on the same rail network, and the difference is the direction of travel. From Kobe, Himeji Castle is under an hour west and the shinkansen opens up Okayama, Kurashiki and even Hiroshima and Miyajima, while Kyoto is about an hour away.

Nara looks towards Japan's earliest history. Horyu-ji is a short ride away, Asuka's burial mounds are best seen by bicycle, and there are the mountain temples of Hase-dera and Muro-ji and the tea and Byodo-in of Uji. Kyoto is well under an hour away.

Kobe is the more rewarding city with children. Oji Zoo, the marine aquarium at Suma, Kobe Animal Kingdom, Harborland's Ferris wheel and the farm at the top of the Rokko cable cars can fill several days, and Universal Studios Japan is about an hour away.

Nara has one great moment, the bowing deer of Nara Park, plus the pillar at Todai-ji that children queue to squeeze through. But it has no zoo, aquarium or theme park. Both cities are safe and easy with a pushchair. Nara simply runs out of things to do sooner.

You need no car in either city, but Kobe is the simpler of the two. Its narrow strip between mountains and sea is threaded by parallel rail lines that all take one IC card. Chinatown, the harbour, the arcades and Kitano are all walkable from Sannomiya, though Kitano is uphill.

In Nara the main temples and the museum are a gentle walk from Kintetsu Nara station, but the distances add up over a day. The western temples need a bus or train, and the buses get crowded at weekends and in blossom season. A rental bicycle suits Nara's flat basin well.

Kobe gives shoppers more. The arcades through Sannomiya and Motomachi, the Daimaru department store among the stone buildings of the old settlement and the small boutiques around Tor Road are good for fashion browsing. Pearls, leather shoes from Nagata and Western-style cakes make good things to bring home.

Nara's shopping is small and centred on crafts. Naramachi sells sumi ink and calligraphy brushes, hand-woven linen, Akahada pottery and carved Ittobori dolls. There are no fashion streets, and keen shoppers in either city end up in Osaka.

The two cost much the same, and in similar ways: business hotels near the main stations are reasonably priced, and noodles, set lunches and izakaya plates keep everyday eating cheap. Where the money goes is what differs. In Kobe the expense is a Kobe beef dinner, the mountain cable cars and a night at Arima. Nara's park is free and its temples charge modest fees hall by hall, so the rail fares for day trips are what add up.

Kobe has the livelier stage. It sees itself as the birthplace of Japanese jazz, with clubs and resident trios across Sannomiya and Kitano and the Kobe Jazz Street festival each autumn. The Hyogo Performing Arts Center in nearby Nishinomiya has its own orchestra, and the Takarazuka Revue performs a short ride away.

Nara's performing arts belong to ritual. Gagaku music and bugaku dance are kept alive at Kasuga Taisha, the city is one of the birthplaces of Noh, the winter On-matsuri has run for centuries, and the Omizutori fire rites at Todai-ji light up early spring. Outside those occasions there is little to attend.

Kobe has a proper hot spring town within its own limits. Arima Onsen, one of Japan's oldest, lies behind Mount Rokko about half an hour away. Its rust-red kinsen and clear ginsen waters, ryokan baths and two public bathhouses make it easy to visit for an afternoon or a night.

Nara has no hot springs of note, only neighbourhood bathhouses and a few bathing complexes on the outskirts. Its restfulness comes from its pace instead: the park early in the morning, a tea house by a temple garden, and the quiet that settles over the old town once the day visitors have gone.