Kita is north in Japanese, and Kyushu is the southernmost of the main islands in Japan. Kitakyushu is the main city in the north of Fukuoka prefecture at the northern end of the island.
A couple of weeks ago two of us went for a train ride out to Moji, which used to be the main port in the area. We had a look around some of the old customs buildings, ships and train station collectables. In a country where everything is so squeaky clean, new and ultra modern it was nice to find a place that was still a little bit slower, older and dirtier than normal. We got to the Moji port just as an Ironman race was started, so we watched some serious people going hard and laughed at six guys at the tail of the group doing their best to either drown themselves or each other. The divers in the water on safety watch weren't impressed though. It might have had something to do with bobbing about in oily water watching some clowns pulling themselves along on the rope to get some distance between themselves and the guys behind trying to pull him under.
Once we got past the music in the park and caught a little train to the other side of the mountain via tunnel and aquatic themed blue light pictures on the walls and roof, we walked around until we found the tunnel under the body of water that separates the two islands. The tunnel is claimed to be the world's only undersea pedestrian tunnel. The water above is flowing at around 12 km/hr but is tidal, so it keeps changing direction and makes for interesting ferry crossings, not to mention the ships either steaming or coasting through depending on which way they are going. On the other side there is a memorial to two clans who didn't exactly get along too well until finally they had a major battle at the site and the losing clans chief suicided by throwing himself in to the sea. I would've thought he could swim..... One clan went in with steel swords against the other armed with a wooden weapon. All bets are off on on the winner there. On this side all the street signs have a ballon fish on them. This area has a very famous fish market and is well known as a ballon fish restaurant area. This is the fish that is supposedly deadly if not prepared properly. The taste is nothing to get too excited over though.
This weekend is a National holiday so we ended up with a three day break from the rain, wind and fog on top of the hill at Higashitani. Pity I only found out about it on Thursday, I might have gone a bit further out.
We woke up friday to more rain so the planned trip via cable car to the top of a closeby mountain was put on hold because it was again in the clouds. "Let's try Spaceworld" our Chinese colleague said. For some reason there is a replica Shuttle launch, a piece of moonrock, space suit, rocket engine and moon vehicle in this nondescript industrial city on the northern coast of Kyushu island. All the space memorabilia is neatly tucked in amongst some pretty wild roller coaster rides, water parks, theatres and restaurants. It didn't take long to get sick of that, so we got back in the car and went for a drive north on to Honshu Island at Shimonoseki.
By this time the rain had set in and was reasonably heavy so it was an indoor activity if we could find one. On the banks of the Konmon Strait between the two of the main Japanese islands is an aquarium so we went in to have a look. For people who's whole food culture revolves around fish it was a bit dissapointing really. There was an impressive sun fish there though. One of the weirdest looking fish in the sea. Any findings from the 'whale research program' was limited to a ten line (in Japanese) plaque at the head of a seventy foot skeleton of a Southern Ocean specimen. After the sea lion show we had all had enough and headed back to our shoe box hotel.
It is going to be good to get home this time......
And even better to get back down to Aus in a month or so.
