Yokohama and Kobe have much in common. Busy ports, both have swanky shopping streets named Motomachi, Chinatowns, Western-style houses on the hill and monument-dotted former foreign settlements. Tweedledum and Tweedledee? Some think so.
However, comparisons between the cities seldom include their tallest yardsticks, their towers. How do Yokohama's Marine Tower and Kobe Port Tower stack up to each other?
The Marine Tower, built in 1961 to commemorate the centennial of the opening of Yokohama's port, is the older structure. It rises 106 meters. Kobe Port Tower was built two years later and stands 2 meters higher. Did its designer intentionally eclipse the rival port's tower? A representative of the Kobe Port Tower office thinks not. "They weren't that consciously competitive," he claims.