Kobe or Takayama?

Kobe at least gives you a swim. Suma's long sandy beach is a short train ride from the centre, and from July to August it has lifeguards and warm bay water. Outside those weeks it is a place for a walk, and for clearer water you have to go over to Awaji Island.

Takayama lies inland in the Hida mountains, about two hours from Toyama Bay, so there is no swimming at all. The nearest thing to bathing there is a hot spring.

Both towns are known for their beef and their sake, but Kobe has much more range. Its port history gave it a baking and coffee-house culture in Motomachi and Kitano. It also has Nankinmachi's steamed buns, the Nada brewing district and casual comfort food like sobameshi.

Takayama does a few things very well: Hida beef grilled on a magnolia leaf with miso, soy-glazed dango, market pickles and tastings at breweries marked with cedar balls. After a few days, though, the menu starts to repeat, and there are few international options.

Takayama has the slight edge in heritage, because its sights form one coherent old town. Sanmachi Suji's merchant lanes, the Takayama Jinya, the Kusakabe and Yoshijima houses and Hida Folk Village all tell the story of the same mountain merchant world.

Kobe's sights are more scattered and more modern in theme. You get the Western merchants' ijinkan in Kitano, the ancient Ikuta Shrine among the shops, and a moving museum about the 1995 earthquake. The bayside art museum is in a Tadao Ando building. Each town fills a day or two, but Takayama feels more like stepping back in time.

In Kobe the evening has somewhere to go. The lanes north of Sannomiya are full of izakaya, whisky bars and tiny counters, and Harborland is pleasant for a drink by the water. If you want clubs and a late night, Osaka is twenty minutes away.

Takayama mostly goes quiet after dinner at the ryokan. A few bars near the station and east of the river serve a beer or a sake, and there is little open after eleven.

Both have excellent outdoors, but it comes in different forms. In Kobe the mountains start at the edge of the city: you can walk from Shin-Kobe past the Nunobiki falls, ride up Rokko or Maya for the night view over the bay, or scramble along the Suma Alps. All of this is possible with no planning.

Takayama opens onto real high country. The Shin-Hotaka ropeway lifts you towards 3,000m peaks, Kamikochi has riverside trails below the Hotaka range, and there is skiing in winter. The cost is the travel time: you have to time your days around bus connections, and Kamikochi closes for the cold months.

Kobe is one of the best bases in Japan for day trips. Himeji Castle is under an hour away and Osaka is next door. Kyoto and Nara are easy days out, and the shinkansen brings Kurashiki and even Hiroshima within a day's reach.

Takayama's trips are fewer but very distinctive. Shirakawa-go's thatched village is under an hour away by bus, and Hida-Furukawa's canals and Gero's spa town are both close by train. Beyond those, the land is mostly mountains, and Kanazawa works better as your next stop than as a day out.

With children, Kobe is the easier city. Oji Zoo, the aquarium beside Suma beach, the indoor animal park on Port Island and the Ferris wheel at Harborland all cater to them, and Universal Studios Japan is about an hour away.

Takayama is safe and easy to get around with small legs, and children usually enjoy the market snacks, the festival floats and the winter snow. Beyond that there is no zoo, aquarium or theme park, so a day or two is plenty.

Both are easy without a car, but Kobe has the deeper network. Several parallel rail lines and a subway run along its narrow strip, all on one IC card. The Port Liner reaches the island and the airport, and the centre between Sannomiya and Motomachi is easy to walk.

Takayama's centre is smaller and flat, with everything within a fifteen-minute walk of the station. The harder part is getting out of town, because Shirakawa-go and the Alps depend on regional buses that need planning and can fill up.

Kobe has the wider shopping. There are long covered arcades, the old Daimaru department store and boutiques in the stone buildings of the former foreign settlement, and small fashion shops around Tor Road. Pearls and leather shoes from Nagata are the local specialities.

Takayama is about craft rather than fashion. Look for amber-toned Shunkei lacquer, carvings cut from a single block of yew and Hida bentwood furniture, alongside a lot of souvenir shops and sarubobo charms.

Kobe is a little kinder to the budget. Its business hotels rarely fill up, and bakery breakfasts, set lunches and short train rides all cost little. The expensive parts are optional: a Kobe beef teppanyaki dinner and shinkansen trips.

Takayama is also moderate, but more of its costs come with the main reasons to go: a ryokan night with a full dinner, a Hida beef meal, and rooms during the spring and autumn festivals, which book out.

Kobe has a real live-music life. It claims to be the birthplace of Japanese jazz, it has small clubs with resident trios around Sannomiya and Kitano, and the Kobe Jazz Street festival takes over Kitano each autumn. Orchestral concerts are at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center, and the Takarazuka Revue plays nearby.

Takayama's performance happens on its two festivals, when karakuri puppets perform on the floats and lantern-lit processions fill the streets. Outside those days there is almost nothing on stage.

In Kobe the hot spring is a trip out from the city. Arima Onsen, one of Japan's oldest spa towns, lies within the city limits on the far side of Mount Rokko, about half an hour away by train or ropeway. You go there for an afternoon in the rust-coloured kinsen and clear carbonated ginsen waters, or for a night with a kaiseki dinner. Back in town there are neighbourhood sento and slow evening walks along the harbour at Meriken Park.

In Takayama the soak usually comes with your room, because many ryokan pipe spring water into their own indoor and open-air baths, and the town's whole pace is slow. The riverside pools of Okuhida and the well-known spa town of Gero are each about an hour or less away. Both places are equally good for rest, so the choice is between a spa outing from a city base and a stay where every evening ends in a bath.