12th May 2012
I left Miyajima early in the morning to catch the train to Iwakuni with my friend, Ee. I have been to Iwakuni before, but since I had time, I decided to go one more time to see this Kintai bridge again. We just snapped photos of the bridge and left. I took train to Mojiko, while Ee went to Hiroshima.
 |
| Kintai bridge 錦帯橋 |
Since I used Youth 18 ticket, all trains I took was normal train, which means slow and money saving. For 172.1 km, the rides took almost 4 hours. I reached Mojiko just in time for lunch. Mojiko is a retro town with many western style buildings. In its heyday, it was a bustling port (one of Japan three major ports - Kobe, Yokohama and Moji) with traders. However, now it is just a quaint little town. The Mojiko Station was built in Meiji 24 years. It is a wooden building with neo-Renaissance style and built under the supervision of a Germans named Hermann Rumschöttel (1844–1932). When it was built, the station had very modern toilets with bronze basins (very rare and expensive that time), marbles and tiles bathrooms. It is still in use nowadays. The Mojiko Station 門司港駅 is a Japan National Cultural Property.
 |
| Mojiko Station 門司港駅 |
 |
| Water Fountain in front of Mojiko Station |
 |
| around Mojiko station (main structures were made of wood) |
First, I went to the tourist information to ask about the baked curry shops. Baked curry (yakikare 焼きカレー) is the food to eat when in Mojiko. The officer gave me a
baked curry shops map. So, I chose a shop near the train station because I was really hungry that time. It doesn't taste like normal Indian curry, a bit sweet, but not like the normal Japanese curry. I can still accept the taste. The shop name is ル・カフェ (☎:093-331-8161).
 |
| baked curry (yakikare 焼きカレー) |
After a fulfilling lunch, I began to tour Mojiko. First, I went to the Mojiko Retro Train Station (Shiokaze-go) 北九州銀行レトロライントロッコ(潮風号) to ride on a cute retro train. I bought a 600 yen ticket, it includes the return ticket and ride on a bus around Kanmon Strait Mekari Station 関門海峡めかり駅. The bus name is Mekari Spectacular View Bus めかり絶景バス, from the Japanese word, 絶景 means totally awesome view or superb view, kind of funny!
 |
| Mojiko Retro Train 北九州銀行レトロライン潮風号 |
The train passed by a tunnel, while inside the tunnel, one could see glowing blue illuminating sea creatures under the train roof. It was beautiful.
 |
| Mojiko Retro Train 北九州銀行レトロライン潮風号 - glowing blue illuminating sea creatures |
 |
| Mojiko Retro Train 北九州銀行レトロライン潮風号 - along the way |
After reaching
Kanmon Strait Mekari Station, I quickly popped up the " Mekari Spectacular View Bus". The tour guide was an elderly volunteer. Too bad I did not understand most of the stuffs he talked about.
 |
| around Kanmon Strait Mekari Station |
 |
| around Kanmon Strait Mekari Station |
The bus brought us to Second Mekari Observation Deck めかり第二展望台. From there, one could see the Kanmon Bridge 関門橋, a suspension bridge that connects Kyushu to Honshu across the Kanmon Strait. Near the observation deck, there was a wall lined with porcelains made in Arita depicting the Battle of
Dan-No-Ura 壇之浦合戦. The guide talked a lot about this war, but I did not understand, so googled about it after I back home, not much English information, only Japanese, the only thing I understood was a group of dolphin showed up near the ship and it made the soldiers morale down. I really have to brush up my Japanese! (・_・;)
 |
| Mural of the "Battle of DanNoUra" 壇之浦合戦絵巻 |
After that, the bus brought us back to the Kanmon Strait Station, then I walked to the Kanmon Tunnel entrance 関門トンネル人道. It is a undersea tunnel connecting Fukuoka (Kitakyushu 北九州) and Yamaguchi (Shimonoseki 下関). The tunnel is not for car, only pedestrians or cyclist. However, the cyclist need to pay 20 yen, while pedestrians are free. So, I walked from Mojiko to Shimonoseki using the tunnel. I tried to take photo of me crossing from Fukuoka to Yamaguchi, one leg in Fukuoka, another in Yamaguchi. However, I failed! This required a third party help.
 |
| Kanmon Tunnel 関門トンネル (the upper left photo is the border between Yamaguchi and Fukuoka) |
 |
| Kanmon Tunnel 関門トンネル (half stamp in Mojiko, half stamp in Shimonoseki. Proof I have been here!) |
I reached Shimonoseki side of the tunnel, first I did not plan to go out of the tunnel, but since the time was still early. I went out. It was raining heavily, when I was in Mojiko side, the weather was still nice. Anyway, I walked around the area. There were statues and cannons overlooking Kaimon Bridge. Nice View!
 |
| Outside Kanmon Tunnel - Shimonoseki side |
After taking photos, I walked back to Mojiko and took the Retro Train back Mojiko Town.
 |
| Outside Kanmon Tunnel - Mojiko side |
Next destination was the Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館. The entrance ticket costs 300 yen, but if one have any tickets from JR, one can get a 20% discount. Since I had my Youth 18 ticket, I showed them my ticket and got the 20% discount, although not much, it was still money. The museum was very awesome! There were real train models, history of the railways in Japan, tickets from the old days, even the moulds for printing the tickets were shown. It was kinda cute!
 |
| Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館 |
 |
| Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館 - tram |
 |
Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館
①ED72 1 - maker: Toshiba (introduced after electrification in Kitakyushu)
②EF10 35 - maker: Toshiba (introduced for the Kanmon Tunnel opening) |
 |
Kyushu Railway History Museum-キハ07 41 号
(built in 1930s with the rounded head, it was popular that era) |
 |
Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館
Nichirin にちりん-early model for express train Kodama
(enable direct transportation between Kyushu 九州 and Honshu本州) |
 |
Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館
Gekko 月光 a.k.a. moonlight
(night train with sleeping berth from Hakato to Osaka) |
 |
| Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館 - exhibition corner |
 |
| Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館 - exhibition corner |
 |
| Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館 - exhibition corner |
 |
Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館
(I like this, special lunch box 駅弁 with local delicacies sold in train stations or inside trains, some have really cute boxes) |
 |
| Kyushu Railway History Museum 九州鉄道記念館
|
After a very informative visit to Kyushu Railway History Museum, my next target were retro buildings in Mojiko. Since the weather was bad, I managed to visit a few only. Another reason was the map with me was all wet and torn with the rain. So, I just found the road signs towards the Mojiko Station after that. I believed that if the weather was nice, the view would be more beautiful!
 |
| around Mojiko Station |
 |
| around Mojiko Station (the signboard on lower right explains about the banana song バナナの叩き売り) |
 |
| around
Mojiko Station (in a park near a library) |
 |
| around
Mojiko Station |
 |
| around Mojiko Station
|
 |
| around Mojiko Station
|
Finally, I were tired and exhausted. So, went to the Mojiko Station to board train back home. The end of my summer trip. I stayed home for rest of the holiday!
※ I bought banana flavoured cookies as souvenir!
No comments:
Post a Comment