Thank you. The hotel shuttle has a last run a little after mid nite ( surprisingly).... If my flight is delayed (AA? Could that happen? nooooooooo!) I will see how I am feeling and go from there, train or cab. I guess I may have to suffer in exchange for that $550 RT airfare.

i realize the only other place I have travelled long haul is Germany, so this will be an adventure.

Update...I am in Kobe, and off to visit Hiroshima...my flight was indeed 2 hours late, so I did miss the last shuttle. I decided to take a cab due to the hour and my jet lagged state. $60

That's a bummer, but I'm glad you survived. Enjoy the trip. I love that location of CP Kobe. Hotel itself is nothing to write home about, but I love the view, having the shopping mall underneath, the Herb Garden ropeway, the Kitano neighborhood, and the fact that you can hop on the bullet train on a whim a couple minutes from the lobby. If you have time, go check out Kobe's enclosed shopping arcades, most notably the Motomachi street.

Even though the mall down below is dead, there are some good restaurants down there. There's a good kobe beef place, and I had an awesome tonkatsu with miso sauce on top. But my fave is the lobster restaurant Chunagon. They've got some great value set menus at lunch time.

Good info RD. Will be using the same rout and keeping my fingers crossed, not to get a delayed arrival.