Kyushu Japan (1) - The problem with holidaying with your family

in Pinmapple4 years ago

In 1995 Christmas I went to Kyushu in Japan with three of my siblings and their family, 9 of us in total. Japan consists of five main islands. Hokkaido up in the north (famous for lavender fields in the summer and sking in the winter), Okinawa in the south (dubbed Asia's Hawaii), Honshu (the main island that includes Tokyo, Osaka etc), Shikoku the second smallest of the five islands (lesser known of all the islands but a hidden gem I hear), and Kyushu which lies south of Honshu.

I can't remember why we chose Kyushu, probably because Sapporo is too expensive in winter, Okinawa was too small to spend 8 days, Honshu is too big and we had to do a lot of planning on where to go. That left us with Shioku and Kyushu. The latter was better known and the size of the island was just
DSC_0080_edited.jpg
livinguktaiwan divider.png

We arrived at Fukuoka, Kyushu's largest city on the evening of 23rd, tired after the 3 hour flight. It doesn't help when you're flying out during the busy Christmas holiday period on a budget airline. It drains you out easily. After we grabbed a quick dinner in the shopping mall, we wandered around the JR station, one of the busiest part of the city. The Christmas lights were up and there was a lovely vibe. We called it a day very soon and got ready to enjoy our holiday the next day.

Or so we thought.
DSC_0004_edited.jpg

DSC_0013_edited.jpg
livinguktaiwan divider.png

KANMON BRIDGE

The first day of our holiday didn't exactly start off the right foot. One of the disadvantages of going on holiday with a group, particularly family members is having to compromise....

Kyushu and Honshu (the main island) are separated by the Kanmon Strait, the distance between the two island is only around one kilometre wide, with the narrowest section being around 600 meters. Thre are various ways to cross the strait. Bridge is an obvious one, this the Kanmon Bridge.
DSC_0022.JPG

Walking through a tunnel is another one. Yes, you heard me right walking through a tunnel under the seabed!!! In London you can walk across a pedestrian tunnel under the River Thames. In Kyushu, there is a similar one, the Kanmon Tunnel. The 750 meter long Kanmon Tunnel is built under the Kanmon Strait seabed connecting Kyushu and Honshu.
DSC_0025.JPG

Hubby was very keen to walk the entire tunnel across to the main island, Honshu. How awesome is it to say you've walked from one island to another in Japan under the seabed. A few others thought it would be a nice walk. Some were indifferent. One member didn't see the point and wasn't keen at all. In the end, it was agreed, very reluctantly by hubby I have to add, that we'd turn back when we got to the mid point.

Here's hubby at the mid point,standing on the line that separates the two islands. He's facing the Fukuoka perfecture on Kyushu and the Yamaguchi perfecture in Honshu is behind him. I can tell you hubby wasn't a happy bunny, but mature enough not to throw a tantrum. Let's move on.
PSX_20200702_235721.jpg
livinguktaiwan divider.png

MOJI

Kanmon Bridge is located on the northern tip of Kyushu in a town called Moji, or Mojiko, ko being port in Japanese.
PSX_20200703_001516.jpg

After we came back up from the Kanmon tunnel we really didnt'have much planned for the day. There was a Railway History Museum nearby and we went over. It was... ok.
DSC_0026.JPG

Then we wandered around the port area. Moji used to be a very busy port back in the 19th century as it is very near Korea and China. In fact it's mid way between Tokyo and Shanghai increasing it's importance as a trading port.
DSC_0035.JPG
DSC_0038.JPG

However the area today has become more of a tourist location. Many western style buildings were constructed back in the hey days and they are still preserved very well making it an interesting area to visit. We passed by one of these historical building, the Old Moji Mitsui Club built in 1921. This was used by the Mitsui Company to receive guest, the most prominent guest being Albert Einstein in 1922.
DSC_0034.JPG

livinguktaiwan divider.png
Our first day in Kyushu was rather uneventful. Nothing to shout about really. Luckily the rest of the trip was better and was more interesting. I'll talk more about it next time.





You can checkout all my travel post on the Pinmapple here or click on Mr Pinmapple below

Sort:  

Hi @livinguktaiwan,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am

Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍

Did you know every user has their own profile map?
And so does every post as well!

Want to have your post on the map too?

  • Go to Pinmapple
  • Click the get code button
  • Click on the map where your post should be (zoom in if needed)
  • Copy and paste the generated code in your post (Hive only)
  • Congrats, your post is now on the map!

One of the reasons why I travel with a very selected group of friends. I hate compromise. 😂

Everyone should be always on the go. No tantrums and reluctance. Anyway, Japan is one of my travel goals, but too expensive for me at the moment. I'll definitely stack some Hive for a trip like this.

Going away with friends is great if you all know each other very well and get on well together, it's great that you have such a group. Treasure them!!!!

I found that if you eat like the locals, which often means you have no idea what you're eating, often it can be cheap, and fun!! I'm sure you will get there very soon. Your post rewards are shooting through the roof. Well done for that!!!

I think you're partly responsible for the rewards that I get. I always got your support which I'm truly grateful for.

Don't pin it on me!!! There are much bigger culprits out there !!! 😄

Hahaha! I need to find those culprits and thank them.

I've been to Kyushu at least 7 times (I went a few times to renew visas, but mostly because it's close to Korea and awesome).

I didn't know about that tunnel. But the Japanese did build one of those here when they were colonizing. It's only 200m long or so. They are narrow and probably were to move soldiers without attracting attention.

Beppu/Yufuin is my favourite place in Kyushu famous for hot springs. I was supposed to go visit there in February, but they added a 2-week quarantine just after my trip was supposed to be done and were talking about it just before I was to leave (I would have been lucky, but ain't chancing that). I wanted to go for the sake festival...oh well next time.

I just google the flight times from Seoul to Fukukuo, 1.5 hours, that very near!

We went to Beppu as well, that will follow soon. I'm not aware of the sake festival, maybe a good reason to go next time, maybe we can meet up there

The sake festival is usually in mid-February. I'm going to try going next year, but COVID needs to calm down and hopefully, Korea and Japan don't pick more fights with each other (tackling covid is easier I think). The festival in a small town about 40 minutes south of Fukuoka City by train.

I've actually taken the ferry between Busan and Fukuoka a couple of times before, that takes around 3 hours, but Busan is a 2.5-hour train ride from Seoul. I really like how the airport is actually in the city, unlike Incheon airport which is a 1.5-hour drive for most people living around Seoul. It's probably just as fast to take the boat and train a lot of times.

So catching the train to Busan plus the ferry ride probably won't take you much longer than flying.

Still got a good 8 months, hopefully it will pan out.

Kyushuu has a very different vibe than Tokyo for sure. I liked Fukuoka and Kita-Kyushu. We were there doing a show at the latter. Lots of Asian foreigners down there which was cool. There was a mall in Fukuoka that had a water park inside/outside where little kids could play, spray each other. Our daughter loved it.

The tunnel looks fun! I wish we would have known about it before hand. Definitely will be checking it out when we go back!

Love the Moji Mitsui Club too! Did you see the heart post box? Maybe it wasn't there in 1995?
IMG_3426 (1).jpg

What a lovely post box, I'm sure I would have taken photos if I did!

Have you sorted out you trip back home yet? Any news from the embassy?

Yes and yes. It's quite burdensome. I have to have a friend or relative pick me up at the airport and self quarantine for 14 days. It is what it is I guess.

That's fair enough, the most important thing is you can be back with the family. And tbh, US is spreading like mad, its for the best you don't want to risk your family and neighbours even though you know you're ok.

Glad it's worked out.

A great trip with family members. frankly, a sharing that made me wonder. Congratulations on the travel article decorated with perfect photos, my dear friend ... I wish you a nice day.🤗

Thanks for dropping by @hairofmedusa!

I've never been to Japan. Thanks for sharing your trip. I get to see more of the country as if I was there too. (P.S. I agree with your hubby and I'm sure I would have liked to walk the whole length of the tunnel.)

It's one of these nice little things to do when you go on holiday, I mean how often can you say you've walked under the seabed. Oh well, that's life 😳

a great travel article. I really like. the photos are very successful. congratulations..

Hola amiga 🙋🏽‍♀️ que bueno leer tus post, ya estaba preocupada porque tenia tiempo sin saber de ti. Casi te escribo por el discord.

Esta publicación me gusto mucho, leer todos los detalles de la historia hacen que piense que leo una novela, dudo que te acuerdes de todo pero las fotos son la mejor herramienta de ayuda para la memoria.

Lindas las fotos y los emoji,jejeje. Has visto lugares hermosos del planeta, eres bendecida por poder ver, viajar y escribir tu historia. Gracias por compartirla.

Un caluroso 🤗.

Ah casi lo olvido, tienes un esposo muy guapo. 😅😁

Hiya, @choogirl here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #898.

Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!

Become part of our travel community: