Journey through Japan : All Around Kitakyushu

Tour Group # 1

I was up at 6:00 am on Saturday morning getting ready for my first Adventure with Shoko-San since returning from the US. We had a full day of activities planned.

Shoko-san is one of the most active people I've ever met. She's always doing something and always knows what's going on around town. She's super social and a member of quite a few different volunteer groups.

Somehow she found out about a free bus tour that would take us around Kitakyushu. The seats were assigned by a drawing of tickets and luckily, Shoko-san and I were picked! よかつた

We met at SpaceWorld Station at 8:20 am and checked in at the registration desk. We made our name tags and headed to our assigned bus. The tour group we were in had about 35 people.

The tour was from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm and it covered 4 different sites.

Our first stop was an old mansion in the Yahatahigashi area. It's been convereted into an event space and is used for many weddings. I didn't take any pictures inside because I was too distracted ... I was switching between English and Japanese conversations with the other tourists.

Our second stop was a man-made bridge that was modeled after a bridge in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. The bridge was impressive, but the surrounding lake and nature was breathtaking. I think Shoko-san and I will make plans to go back and spend an afternoon walking the nature trails. I could've stayed at this site for hours.

Here are some pictures . . .

Stop # 2 - Nature Preserve

Stop # 2 - Man made bridge

Stop # 2 - snacks that Shoko-san packed for us.

Our 3rd stop was a visit to Tobata Station where we saw the floats used for the annual Tobata Gion Festival. Last year I attended the festival with my ALT friend, B -- Adventure: Tobata Gion Festival. I am hoping to go again this year. The festival is held during July and it celebrates the summer season. Men and boys from the community come together to construct and carry around these amazing floats. They have a routine of chants and stomping that they perform. It's unbelievably impressive to see them assemble the floats on site.

Stop # 3 - This is the kind of float that is carried during the day time portion of the festival.

Stop # 3 - This is the kind of float that is assembled and carried during the night time portion of the festival. It's absolutely stunning to see all of the floats lit up and paraded through the streets of Tobata.

Our 4th stop was to a UNESCO Wold Heritage Site. Kitakyushu began as and has continued to be an industrial city. This last stop of our tour celebrated and explained the strong presence industries like steel and manufacturing have in Kitakysuhu. Once again I didn't take any pictures here because I was too busy switching between English and Japanese conversations with the other tourists.

Once our tour was over Shoko-san and I grabbed a bus and headed to meet her friend, K for lunch. Since we were going to be using the bus to get around for the rest of the afternoon, we each bought an unlimited day pass.

We met K at a bus stop* in Kokura and all rode a bus to lunch together.

*What's so impressive about spending time with Shoko-san is seeing that she does everything without having a cellphone. When she makes plans with people, each party sticks to the plan and meets up where and when they should. It's impressive because I think about all the texts that are exchanged between people these days ... "Running late." "Be there in 5." "Where are you?" "Are you coming?" "I'm at a table in the back." Messages like this do not exist in Shoko-san's world.

We had reservations at an Italian restaurant in Kokura. This is a place that Shoko-san and K went to during their birthday months. They like this place because it serves all-you-can-eat-bread with your meal. I was excited for them, but I didn't partake. I'm trying my best to focus on eating more protein and eating less grains and sugars. I've been eating this way for about 2.5 months and have noticed positive changes in myself that I want to keep. So, I passed on the bread and didn't feel bad about it. #smallvictory

After lunch we took another bus to Kokura River Walk to see K's calligraphy on display at the Arts Center. It was really neat to see all of the variations of calligraphy techniques. There were all sorts of styles and scales. K's was really impressive and it was a neat experience to view an artists' work with them in person.

Here are the pictures . . .

Calligraphy done by local artists in Kitakyushu.

K's calligraphy piece.

Afterwards, Shoko-san and I headed back to Tobata to walk through the 29th Tobata Iris Festival held at Yomiya Park. When we had visited the park in March the irises were not in bloom yet.

We enjoyed walking through the park and taking pictures of the flowers. It was the best way to end a wonderful day.

Here's what we saw . . .