{"id":8268,"date":"2015-11-01T05:10:05","date_gmt":"2015-11-01T13:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=8268"},"modified":"2015-11-01T05:10:05","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T13:10:05","slug":"japan-2015-day-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=8268","title":{"rendered":"Japan 2015 Day 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

I started out the day at the castle, taking the picture that disappeared off my phone yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

To be honest, I started out the day eating breakfast and not taking a picture for my sister. Fortunately, I\u2019m here for another night.<\/p>\n

I took the train to Mojiko, and \u00a0was half a bust. Don\u2019t trust the people who hand out the maps. I got on the \u201cTown Discovery Course\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the old sleeper trains that no longer runs. We took that when I was a kid. I\u2019m guessing it was cheaper than the shinkansen back then. There\u2019s some exhibits and a fun train driving simulator inside (\u00a5100). Like I said, small but worth it.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

It was a tiny shrine and they were cleaning it up. I guess they were having their yearly \u201cfestival\u201d and one lady told me that it\u2019s the only time anyone\u2019s there. She gave me some gifts and I was on my way.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

Honestly, after than, I shouldn\u2019t complain about the rest of the mess. In order of the places the map led me to next:<\/p>\n

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 \u201ccultural asset of the city\u201d is also kind of an eyesore.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

I finally decided to heck with following the route and went to the Koso Hachiman Shrine.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

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 \u201cAruku-ing\u201d 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).<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

From there I decided to walk in the underground tunnel to Shimonoseki, under the Tsushima strait, mainly because I could. There\u2019s an elevator that takes you down to the tunnel, and it\u2019s about a 15 minute walk one way.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the view from the Kyushu side,<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a view from the Yamaguchi-ken side.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

I walked all the way back into town and went up the \u201cMojiko Retro Observation Room\u201d, 31 stories up. Here\u2019s picture of the bridge that\u2019s over the tunnel I just went under.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

After that it was time to wander around the touristy parts of Mojiko. One of the first things I found was a \u201cji-biru\u201d 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\u2019s just the Portland influence.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

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

\"IMG<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n

I was about to skip dinner but then I thought, why? I\u2019m 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!<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019m here for another night. I took the train to Mojiko, and \u00a0was half a bust. Don\u2019t trust the people who hand out the maps. I got on the \u201cTown Discovery Course\u201d 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\u2019s one of the old sleeper trains that no longer runs. … Continue reading Japan 2015 Day 5<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8269,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8268\/revisions\/8269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}