Taking the train from Fukuoka to Kitakyushu to climb Sarakurasan
Another day, another planned rest day, another day where I got 'lost' and somehow crossed over numerous mountains after finding a path that no one else seems to know exists. Therefore, another excellent day!.
I planned to go into the outskirts of Kitakyushu, about an hour by train from Fukuoka, climb up the city mountain of Sarakurasan, gawk at the view for a while, trot back down, have a relaxed lunch, return to my hotel and rest my poor old legs.
It all went too well, the hike to the top of the mountain was challenging and picturesque despite numerous paths being destroyed by natural disaster. Once I was at the top I spotted maps and signs and chatted with an old Japanese man, then I decided... why not follow a random path and see where it goes? I could see two more peaks from peak number one, and I think I hit both of them, but my path was a long lonely awesome one that as you will see finally came out very far from anywhere.
About 25km later I arrived back at a station a few miles from where I originally planned to be.
Maybe my time in Nagasaki will be restful? The weather apparently will still be great the whole time I am there also. Too many pics, lets get going.
First I had to walk from my hotel to Hakata station, this went past a large shrine, time for a shrine photo by the light of the dawn.
It is still about 20 degrees during the day, but only 10 degrees when I depart at dawn. I refuse to carry a jumper all day so I freeze for a while. Not today, I found a long tunnel that went all the way to the station. Good times.
Ahh, the Fukuoka marathon is indeed on today. That explains why I saw a few competitors with their arms and legs wrapped in plastic doing weird pre race ritualistic stretches and chanting. I have no idea what the plastic is for.
What the hell happened to this train? did it travel through a volcanic eruption and get pounded by falling boulders?
I got off the train at Yahata station, just a couple before the main Kitakyushu station of Kokura. It was quite a nice area.
Here we have todays kittens. The black one is very entertained with his piece of newspaper.
The streets to the hiking trail, which is also the bottom cable car station, are surprisingly steep and narrow. It was already quite an effort to get up here.
I found this awesome rusting Karmann Ghia in a secluded car park with a great view.
The rusting classic car had this view to enjoy.
Next I saw a staircase, I assumed it would meet up with a road. It went past this shrine and into a cemetery, but there was a fence around the whole thing to keep the zombies contained. I had to backtrack.
Eventually I found a way across the freeway. Already quite far up the hill at this point.
God damn it Japan! Another busted path. Get your act together. Thankfully there are many paths up this small mountain.
There goes the cable car. Pfffffttt, there is absolutely no fun in that. I mooned everyone on it.
The replacement trail I found was dark and mysterious, there were however other people at this point. Still it was steep and fun.
A brief clearing reveals the distance remaining to the top. Great light today when the pollution wasnt ruining it.
Now we will appreciate the view of the smog from the top in a series of indistinguishable photos. I have done what I can to clean them up, but that is a layer of smog, it is not cloud!
So much smog. This area of Japan is very industrial.
The view over the many mountains is great, but look at all that farmers burn off smoke... I hate that.
The antennas and North Korean nuclear missile monitoring equipment is particularly invasive on this peak.
Have a bit more pollution smog.
Apparently if you are very lazy you change cable cars halfway up, just to make sure you dont walk at all. I noted everyone on board has hiking gear. Well done.
Kitakyushu and Fukuoka basically join up to form a 100km long city.
This view inspired me to find a path along the peaks rather than heading straight back down. I was very glad I did. A Japanese man had about 200 questions for me at this point. Was he a government agent?
The path to this peak was easy enough. Here you can see the towers from the first peak, from where I had come from. My descriptions are very matter of fact today.
Some time later down a very lonely path which at times was so steep they had to add black and yellow rope, I found this lone red tree.
I seem to have left all that city behind somehow and ended up in the middle of nowhere. I was scrolling google maps making sure I would eventually hit a road, any road.
This was the only sign along the path. What they are I have no idea. Framed glass covered documents explaining something. Probably not to enter due to bear traps, pig hunting, land mines.
I think I am approaching a road! Hooray!
Ahhh, a shrine, the road must be coming up soon.
And sure enough, I soon found a road, a gate and a big red tree. Photo ruined by inconsiderate people that parked their car and scooter here rather than in the huge empty carpark behind where I am standing.
I came out in this awesome rural valley. Thankfully I found a vending machine. I chose not to carry water today as I knew the top of the mountains was very developed. I did not expect to take such a long detour!
Work time! Heres the schedule for which days you leave which bags of which garbage to be collected. Garbage, plastic containers and bags, cans and bottles, garbage. Looks like the garbage collectors dont work Fridays.
A view of the peaks I crossed. Squint and look at the top left, thats the big towers on the top of the first peak from earlier in the day.
If you are viewing the full trip report style of this website you can also click the picture for a larger version.
The road back to the station became a nice elevated path surrounded by URBAN PINE FOREST, not the coastal pine forest from yesterday, but an urban pine forest. I suspect it used to be a railway track.
I was a bit early for the next train, so there was time to take a few photos of the station area. This is like a city in itself, very modern, Kurosaki.
I loved todays 'easy' mountains, so I took another photo from the station. They are further away than that, I cropped this photo.
The main covered shopping street of Kurosaki is all but abandoned on a Sunday afternoon.
Still slightly too early for the train, I had time to appreciate this robot arm playing with a ball on a mini railway. I think the robotics company is based in Kurosaki.
I highly recommend going to Kitakyushu and getting lost on Sarakurasan!
Eating soup and looking at flowers in Fukuoka at night
No ramen tonight, time to get some health into me. Actually I have been eating broccoli and toast for breakfast, as my hotel comes with breakfast. Nearly everything on offer for breakfast has been in a fryer or is sausage related, which leaves broccoli and toast. Even the other breakfast salad options appear to be floating in cream based salad dressing. Anyway, enough about my breakfast, now for my dinner!
As I mentioned in Tokyo when I went to Roppongi and had a clone of Tokyo Soup Stock, I like Tokyo Soup Stock. So now that I am not in Tokyo, I had Tokyo Soup Stock, in Fukuoka. Perhaps when I got back to Tokyo I will have Tokyo Soup Stock in Tokyo, which is bound to send their stocks soaring, they are listed on the Tokyo stock exchange.
Anyway, as always I had the two soup combo as you shall see.
I also did a last lap of Fukuoka, taking in both Hakata, Tenjin and all the shrines in between. I will probably do another last lap tomorrow morning before taking the 2 hour train ride to Nagasaki.
Not many pics tonight!
Such truth in advertising!
Here we have the first of many shrines this evening, I did not photograph them all. The sky is still a little bit blue.
This streets shop owners association voted to approve a local illumination. This is what they got. 3 pieces of mildly illuminated plastic. Merry Christmas.
Its my dinner as mentioned above. One of the soups is minestrone, the other I am not sure of, but it has mushrooms and I do not think its miso.
Here we have the ever mysterious multi level car parking building. You hand your car over to some dude who then arranges for it to be swallowed by a giant machine. They then get shuffled around inside its metal stomach for hours before you hand in your ticket and it gets regurgitated out again.
Another darkened shrine. This one was a Shinto Shrine, I saw a sign. No one really knows what Shinto is, an excuse to hold expensive real estate in Japanese cities.
The department stores of Tenjin. Fukuoka seems to have very wide spacious streets compared to most other areas of Japan.
This restaurant had a lot of steam and or smoke coming out of it, fogging up the neon. I decided it was a good photo to mess about with for a while to keep myself entertained.
If you are looking for some weekend work, there are plenty of job openings in the move this pole holding a sign from side to side while screaming your lungs out on a street corner business.
Its the final YATAI! I tried to go to one for dinner last night, but they all seemed to only be selling skewers of meat. Not really a meal in my opinion, more something you eat before or after being drunk. Anyway, they make for good photos, I get to include people in my photos without causing great offence. I dont care if I cause offence. People should stop being offended.
And tonights final photo, some flowers! There are flowers everywhere here, all up and down the streets, in the shops, in the tunnels, on the trains. My hotel room also has some potted color.