Located about 30 km west of Osaka, and framed by the beautiful Mt. Rokko Range and the Seto Inland Sea, Kobe is an attractive and vibrant modern city stretched out on the shores of Osaka Gulf. The modern Kobe era began with the opening of Hyogo port in 1867, when Kobe, as well as Yokohama and Nagasaki, was designated as an area where foreign resident were allowed. A community quickly arose, centered on merchants from Europe, North America, and various Asian countries. Kobe managed to retain its exotic atmosphere as it developed in later years into a prominent international trading port and center for the shipbuilding and iron industries. In recent years Kobe has continued to show remarkable progress and expansion, and now the home for a high-tech research and development area, it is also an important fashion and tourism center, high-lighted by the extremely long and beautiful Akashi Kaikyo Bridge connecting Honshu and Awaji Island over the Akashi Straits.