It's simple to get to the top of Mt. Rokko: just pick any fair-sized road going north and start puffing. However, probably the most pleasant route starts near the Shukugawa River, at Shukugawa Station on the Hankyu line. This is the view from the station platform - it's a familiar sight to anyone commuting between Osaka and Kobe. You follow the river northward for a few miles, traveling on the right side; eventually the road (tiny route 82) curves upward into the mountains.

The park along the riverbank has lots of places for people to relax, and some interesting sights - among them this waterwheel. A sign nearby explains how waterwheels were used to polish the rice used for making the famous local sake (rice wine); most of the breweries were near Nada to the west. The sign cautions that none of the waterwheels have survived and it's not clear exactly what they looked like, so this one is just so you can get the general idea. Naturally, the water used for sake-making was the famous Mt. Rokko water that flowed down the mountain and percolated underground.