Mojiko

After a small mishap where I shamelessly broke the law by stealing train services, I had a very nice latte and watched the birds fight over stale bread.

Kitakyushu is a largeish port city near fukuoka that has a museum I’ve been wanting to see for years. The TOTO museum isn’t a toilet museum, not exactly. But this is the first thing you see, so….

The company spent years developing the bidet part of the toilet. In the meantime, toto made dishes. This beautiful set was made for the emperor’s household

The squatty potty used to be made of wood. Nasty.

That’s 700,000 yen for just the toilet. TOTO sells prefab bathrooms, and they are beautiful

Im pretty sure it was beef, but exactly what part of the animal it was im not exactly sure. Still, very tasty.

Mojiko train station. Most of the existing buildings are western because of the trade activity.

Historically, this is the port where bananas were imported from Taiwan. There’s decent tasting banana ice cream, too

On my way home from the station, sumiyoshi shrine

Some kind of practice or ceremonial dohyo. Later a dude with a sumo wrestler hairdo was tarping it. Im sure there was a ceremony related to the tournament going on right now

Rainy day

The museums were closed, so my normal rainy day activity was impossible.

My normal backup backup plan: just get wet and take lots of coffee breaks.

I used my railpass to go to the countryside.

First up was Nanzoin. Huge old place. Buses and buses of folks but still pretty calm.

After that I rode the wrong train, so that ate up some time.

Eventually I got to the town of Dazaifu. This place was hopping for a dreary day. I shudder to think about being here on a spring day. No sakura flowers, beautiful as they are, are worth that.

The bridge played a song when struck with a coin or something

Remains of the faithful. Its very expensive to rest here.

Even though we’re at a Buddhist temple, they tuck Shinto shrines in here and there

At the train station. The fighter is one of my favorites. He’s retired now

Here we are in Dazaifu. Where there’s a shrine, there’s a shopping street.

Neat old machine. Its been cranking out these bean treats by the hundreds for decades.

After all this, I was ready to sit and read for a couple of hour. I had fried meat and gravy for dinner. Delicious.

Nagasaki

Friends, I had a great day yesterday. I really slept well for the first time in weeks and awoke refreshed. So nice.

I got up kinda late but still managed to get a load of washing done before I left. So I’ll have clean drawers for a couple of days.

The limited express that took me to nagasaki. These older trains are still miles ahead of the amtrak stock in terms of comfort

The second bomb exploded over this spot in August of 1945.

There was, and are, a lot of Catholics in the prefecture. This is the remains of an important church nearby

I think the tour guide said that this sculpture was made from scrap metal after the explosion

A memorial to the Korean slaves that died because of the bomb. The official verbiage is forced laborers. But slaves, yeah

And another for the Chinese slaves. Also a lot of Korean and Chinese prisoners died.

Inside the hall of remembrance. In the stack at the rear are books with names written down of all the people that died directly and indirectly

Artists and calligraphers update the ledgers monthly

Remains of a hilltop prison very close to the hypocenter

The guy said that the paper cranes are kept for quite a long time. I imagine they’re eventually burned in a ceremony of some kind

After the museum, I did the other thing there is to do there; ride the cable car

All in all a very satisfactory day out

Sakurajima

Its an island with an active volcano! Of course I had to go. Also I have this train pass burning a hole in my pocket, so you know I’ll be riding the train every day.

The bullet train was empty because I beat the crowd. That was nice.

Sakurajima is well known for its incredible soil. It’s not giant radish season, so I didn’t get to try any. Booo.

The locals make beautiful pottery from the ashes. Also, booze is made from sweet potatoes that grow in the area.

Part of the fun of the ferry ride is the udon served on board. The ride is short, and the challenge is to eat the bowl up before you get to the next port. I did not succeed.