9 November 2026
Coal fired view
Tsuruga port area
Not a hiking day, lets go climb the city mountain!
Overlooking Tsuruga is a series of lookouts with a view of the port, the harbour, the city, the shrines, and the coal fired power plant and cement factory. When I arrived here a couple of days ago I thought the big tower was a lookout on the mountain, no, it is a chimney. And then this morning, before I knew it was a chimney I was fascinated by a cloud that seemed to form out of nothing at low altitude and move independently of the other clouds, no it was smoke.
The view however was pretty good, despite the bear warnings, and despite the very grey day. The forecast has been updated from all day rain, to no rain, and sun again tomorrow. It seems to change regularly so I will not hold my breath.
I showed the shrine at night the other day, now for the same thing, in the grey light of day.
The red was a very strange shade of red, possibly covered in coal smoke.
Time to start my ascent of the small city mountain, bear warning signs everywhere.
The 'trail' today is a road of sorts. It takes about 90 minutes to walk the full loop at a leisurely pace, there were a lot of old folks doing the same.
Many public toilets, including this cool A frame one.
Here is the view away from the city.
This is not the observation deck I expected, but it is an observation deck none the less, with strange tennis ball green coloured concrete.
Now for the view, the main part of Tsuruga is around to the left.
Not the main part of Tsuruga, although the mountain nearer the right edge is my hike from yesterday.
The power plant and the cement factory, there is the mystery pole which I originally thought was the observation deck and not a chimney.
Not all of the path was a road, behold, steps.
Coal pits! Japan still burns coal. They should be punished.
The mountain across the harbour is not as big as the one from yesterday or the one tomorrow, I originally planned to climb it but getting back from the end of the trail to town seems problematic.
Another shrine at the end of the city mountain loop overlooking the power plant.
Now that I was down, I was greeted by a train, nice.
One of the main attractions of all of Tsuruga is this brick warehouse, the inside has a cafe and souvenir shop. All signs point to it.
The police pulled up to ask for my passport, since it would take them a good 10 minutes to tie up and disembark, I just wandered off slowly.
Apparently this is a train museum, closed on Mondays which is today, but also previously had something to do with Jewish immigration from Lithuania. I could not quite work it out.
The map does not even explain what this place is, or was, because it is now abandoned other than some vending machines in the lobby.
And for my final pic of my non hiking day, a bronze robot statue. The sign says Cosmoship Yamato, well ok, sounds like Starblazers, and it is. Apparently Cosmoship Yamato is an upcoming movie length reboot of Space Battleship Yamato which was known as Starblazers on Australia TV. I am impressed they commissioned a bronze statue for a movie that is not even out yet. I now wonder if all the statues are movie themed, further investigation this evening.