Fukuoka Prefecture

Kitakyushu

Do
Look down on the town from a hilltop cafe
In Japan's hillside port towns, some cafes and viewing rooms sit high above the streets, and from their windows the rooftops, harbor and sea spread out below you. Order a drink or a sweet, sit back and let the view be the main event. All of these are in western Japan, between Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so they fit best into a trip to that region.
Do
Spend a day reading among walls of manga
Manga are Japanese comics, and at these museums tens of thousands of volumes line the walls, free to take down and read inside. Pick up a classic or a series you have never heard of, and read for as long as you like. Most books are in Japanese, but the pictures carry much of the story, so you can enjoy them without reading every word.
Town
Kitakyushu
A port town of baked curry and 1910s buildings
Mojiko is an old trading port at the northern tip of Kyushu, facing the narrow Kanmon Strait, about 15 minutes by local train from Kokura, which is about two hours from Osaka by shinkansen. Its dish is baked curry, curry and rice topped with egg and cheese and browned in the oven, said to have begun when a coffee shop here baked its leftover curry. After lunch, walk the waterfront, where a 1914 station and other Western-style buildings stand a few minutes apart.
Do
Watch ships pass from a harbor-view cafe
In the port towns of Mojiko and Onomichi, a few cafes look straight out over the water, where ferries and large cargo ships pass all day long. Order a coffee, take a seat by the window and let the boats drift by. Both towns are in western Japan, so they fit best into a trip to Hiroshima or northern Kyushu.

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