I have tasted kobe beef and quite like it but know nothing about it. Is it a different type of cow?
I've never had it, but at one time, in Japan, that cattle were workhorses used in agriculture, forestry, and mining instead of for meat.
So do you think the meat would be usually more tougher then normal cow meat?
Probably.  That was the only type of cattle in Japan until the late 1800s, then new cattle was imported and cross-breeded with the native stock. Maybe that helped.