HIRES: They were performing in the main center of Canal City where the Yamakasa float was last week.
HIRES: This bathroom stall had another one of those handy baby seats. Since I had my better camera with me I took another shot of it.
HIRES: a close up of the warning sign. They are worried about people smoking on the toilet and using this as an ashtray?
HIRES: Ohori Park. It is next to the ruins of Fukuoka Castle right in the middle of the City.
HIRES: Info about the Park. I too harmonized beautifully with the waterfowls.
HIRES: Loch Ness Monster? No, just a Barney dinosaur paddle boat.
HIRES: Fukuoka Tower on the left.
HIRES: Maizuru Park, next to Ohori Park
HIRES: Manzuru Park as it exists today, there is a museum, a stadium and some other stuff here now.
HIRES: As it was when it was Fukuoka Castle (the bay inlet was the moat).
HIRES: Whats left of the castle. Not as impressive as Kumamoto, which is a bigger castle and mostly fully intact.
HIRES: Fukuoka Tower in the background. It had just rained really heavily again (seems to be a pattern this summer)
HIRES: Apparently Fukuoka Castle was destroyed shortly after it was finished by fire or something.
HIRES: View from one of the turrets. This is looking east towards my dorm (I can see the same hills from my window)
HIRES: View north towards the bay. They have a cable stay suspension bridge here.
HIRES: Big crow didn't want me to take its picture so it took off as I was snapping this.
HIRES: View to the north west.
HIRES: Ourasan, from Nagasaki.
HIRES
HIRES: BMW Z4? They were doing a promo in a shopping area that included a live singer praising the virtues of BMWs.
HIRES: Mojiko Station, on the north coast of Kyushu Island, across from Honshu Island. This station looked quite old, except for the automated ticket machines.
HIRES: I don't think it had been repainted since 1914 too.
HIRES: Mojiko is right across from the city of Shimonoseki on the SW tip of Honshu island (the main island of Japan).
HIRES: The informative sign says this is the only pedestrian draw bridge in all of Japan.
HIRES
HIRES: Speaking of Shimonoseki, do we all recall that the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki ceded Chinese sovereignty of Taiwan in perpetuity?
HIRES: "Retoro town" was what they called this part of the waterfront, it had many Western style buildings from the turn of the century.
HIRES: This weird domeshaped twin hulled ferry, named "Voyager" takes tourists to a famous nearby island.
HIRES: Bananaman, see http://www.bananaman.jp for an explanation.
HIRES: All over Kyushu there are CRAZY amounts of promotions for a movie - Musashi vs Kojiro, some famous Zaitochi story about two samurai who duel on an island (the one that the "Voyager" goes to)