As Good As Old

We left home at 06:10 and met Kazutoshi at Hanshin Umeda Station at 06:44. We then walked to JR Osaka Station and caught the 06:50 train to Shin Osaka. We then had a little time to kill before catching the 07:35 Hikari Shinkansen to Kokura.

We arrived in Kokura at 09:54 and were then lucky enough to catch the delayed 09:48 train to Mojiko at 10:00.

As soon as we arrived at Mojiko Station, I knew I would like the place. Mojiko Station is a Renaissance style building and is simply bursting with charm. Unfortunately, the facade is currently under construction but you can see what the station looked like on the link.

As we made our way to the first sightseeing spot, we popped into a 7-11 because I wanted to buy a bottle of milk tea. When we came out, Arthur said they had some frozen Coca-Cola pouches, so I gave him some money to go back in and buy two for me as they are so hard to find in Hyogo.

Our first sightseeing spot was the Former Moji Mitsui Club, an old guest house where Albert Einstein once stayed. We then popped into the Old Mitsui O.S.K. Building, another beautiful old building which is currently being used as a gallery for paintings by Seizo Watase. Seizo Watase has painted many posters for Hankyu Railways depicted famous locations in Kobe, so many of his beautiful paintings were instantly recognisable to me.

We then made our way to the dock and popped into the Old Moji Customs Building, before then moving on to the Mojiko Retro Observation Room for some splendid views of this beautiful town. You can see the Observation Room behind the International Friendship Commemorative Library in today's photo.

From the Observation Room we returned to the dockside and had a delicious meal in a restaurant there. We then browsed around the shops for a while and watched an ice sculpture competition. The sculptors had to be very quick to get their wonderful sculptures completed before they melted in the hot sun. See extra.

I left Kazuko, Valerie, Arthur and Kazutoshi in a tea shop for a while so that I could take a twenty minute boat ride around the harbour and get a close up view of the Kanmon Bridge. We then returned to Mojiko Station, stopping at the 7-11 again on the way for me to buy four more frozen Coca-Cola pouches.

We took the local train from Mojiko Station to Kokura, then caught the Shinkansen for a short trip to Hakata Station. From Hakata Station, it was a ten minute walk to our hotel.

After checking in at the Sunline Hotel we walked back to Hakata Station, browsed around the shops for a while and then had a delicious meal at a restaurant in Kitte Mall. Using the receipts in a raffle, Arthur won us Y800 worth of vouchers. We then went back to the hotel, tired but happy, for a bath and an early night.