I started out the day at the castle, taking the picture that disappeared off my phone yesterday.

To be honest, I started out the day eating breakfast and not taking a picture for my sister. Fortunately, I’m here for another night.

I took the train to Mojiko, and  was half a bust. Don’t trust the people who hand out the maps. I got on the “Town Discovery Course” and promptly got lost. The scale is all weird and I overshot the railway museum. I finally figured out and backtracked and the museum was worth it, small but definitely cool.

That’s one of the old sleeper trains that no longer runs. We took that when I was a kid. I’m guessing it was cheaper than the shinkansen back then. There’s some exhibits and a fun train driving simulator inside (¥100). Like I said, small but worth it.

Then I got lost again. I ended up where I was before I backtracked and saw lots of flags for a shrine. I have a thing for shrines so I headed up the slope. And up. And up.

It was a tiny shrine and they were cleaning it up. I guess they were having their yearly “festival” and one lady told me that it’s the only time anyone’s there. She gave me some gifts and I was on my way.

Honestly, after than, I shouldn’t complain about the rest of the mess. In order of the places the map led me to next:

The Sakaemachi Gintengai Shopping arcade was mostly closed. The Showa Retro Gallery no longer existed. The Ohara Market was closed on Sundays. The Central Market and Omatsu Shopping Center were the same. The Matsunaga Library had moved. The untitled “cultural asset of the city” is also kind of an eyesore.

I finally decided to heck with following the route and went to the Koso Hachiman Shrine.

From there I went back to the Moji Telecommunications Museum (lots of cool old phones!) and then went off the track completely. There were lots of people on the “Aruku-ing” walk and I decided to follow their path, albeit much later than they were. I went all the way to the Mekari Shrine (from 700AD and the northernmost shrine in Kyushu).

From there I decided to walk in the underground tunnel to Shimonoseki, under the Tsushima strait, mainly because I could. There’s an elevator that takes you down to the tunnel, and it’s about a 15 minute walk one way.

 

Here’s the view from the Kyushu side,

 

And here’s a view from the Yamaguchi-ken side.

I walked all the way back into town and went up the “Mojiko Retro Observation Room”, 31 stories up. Here’s picture of the bridge that’s over the tunnel I just went under.

After that it was time to wander around the touristy parts of Mojiko. One of the first things I found was a “ji-biru” brewery (local brewery). Of course I had to try a bunch of them. The beers, while tasty, were oddly odorless and not living up to the bitterness that was promised. I suppose that’s just the Portland influence.

I also ate the odd Mojiko specialty: yaki kare. Japanese curry rice, on a hot skillet, with cheese and an egg inside.

I spent another couple of hours going through the tourist traps and remaining couple of museums. I got back to Kokura and hit Mr. Donut for a cup of coffee.

I was about to skip dinner but then I thought, why? I’m on vacation. So I went to Bikkuri Donkey and had a hamburg steak! (and some more beer) This hamburg steak is hiding cheese and potato salad inside!