Visiting Historical Sites

 Two weeks ago, at the beginning of October, my family took a trip to Japan to celebrate my mother-in-law's 80th birthday. We were originally thinking about going to Osaka, but due to the very good exchange rate between the won and the yen, prices for flights to Japan were really expensive over the summer. Luckily, the overnight ferry prices were unchanged. Rather than go to Osaka (there is a ferry), I saw that there is one to Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Shimonoseki is the southwestern-most point of the main Japanese island of Honshu. I'd been through it on the shinkansen, but never explored the city. So we decided to give it a try. 

Shimonoseki, or at least the area around the port and JR station, is fairly typical for a small Japanese city. And according to my research, there's more shopping/entertainment/stuff to do up around the shinkansen (bullet train) station in the north-central part of the city. But it was just as easy (maybe easier) to take the 15 minute train ride to Kitakyushu city, across the water in Fukuoka Prefecture. The d24 I posted about was purchased in Kitakyushu. In addition to all the shopping, we did visit Kokura Castle, which was pretty nice.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go in the castle. But since it's been rebuilt, it's a museum inside and at least to me, not as interesting as when a castle has been (mostly) restored to what it was originally like. There is apparently an Augmented Reality escape room game you can play, trying to get out of the castle as it is burning down. But my mother-in-law was tired from all the shopping, my wife had more shopping she wanted to do, and we were all hungry. So maybe next time. And that was day 1 of the trip, for the most part. 

Day 2, we went around Shimonoseki to see some of the historical sites. And there are some important ones in Japanese history. 

First up, Dan-no-Ura, where 800ish years ago, the Minamoto (Genji) decisively defeated the Taira (Heike) in a large naval battle, allowing the Minamoto to set up the first shogunate at Kamakura. Additionally, in the 1860s, an armada of European and American warships bombarded Shimonoseki from the straits, until local officials were forced to open the port to international trade. There is a memorial to both naval actions in the same park. There's also a walking tunnel beneath the strait from the park to Kyushu, which my younger son and I wanted to take, but my mother-in-law didn't want to do that much walking. Again, maybe next time. 

 

 After that, we took a boat to Ganryujima, the small, uninhabited island where the famed swordsman Miyamoto Musashi fought his third famous duel against Sasaki Kojiro. The boat ride was fun, and the island was peaceful and relaxing. 

After getting back to the city, it was time to pack up and get back to the ferry terminal, but after the check-in, we had several hours before boarding. So I took the boys to the Kaikyo Yume Tower, which was just a couple of blocks from our hotel, which was a couple of blocks the other direction from the ferry terminal. 

One of the pictures from up in the tower. Dan-no-Ura is where the bridge crosses the strait. We got on the boat to Ganryujima at the dock just to the left of the ferris wheel (not that you can really see it in this photo). 

And here's Ganryujima, seen from the tower. 

Here's the tower itself, photographed the night before. 

I know there are a few people reading the blog who are also into Japanese history, so hopefully you found this interesting.