The ferry docked at Kitakyushu around 5:30am right after sunrise. Kitakyushu Shinmoji harbour is located around 20km away from the city center and once upon a time acted as a node between the rest of Asia and Japan creating a big impact to Japan’s industrialisation.

I started heading to the city through road 71 and a few minutes after leaving the factory-like area I was already surrounded by this green colour-scheme that is so characteristic of Japanese forests in this season. It was a pleasant ride, with few tunnels and lakes that were worth a stop.

The sun started to show up through the clouds as soon as I was entering the city and that was the perfect excuse to park and have a coffee at a local fishing spot with great views of the city and the ocean.

Before heading to your destination, going all the way up of Mount Sakagura (皿倉山) is a must.

With its peak of 622 meters above the sea level, it emerges a few kilometers away from the city center and offers excellent views of the city and its surroundings. (At night it’s even more impressive).

The road that follows the cable car is stiff, curvy and very jungly. It is well preserved considering it is mainly used by hikers, however there are plenty of fallen leaves all over the road which can give your wheels a hard time in the event of rain, break gently on the way down and you will be alright. The foliage covering the road is so dense that even under the rain you will barely notice it.

It was almost lunch time and by seeing all the hikers enjoy their healthy home-made rice balls soon I realised there were not any restaurants in the area. After asking around, an old woman kindly recommended her favourite sushi restaurant that was precisely on the way to Fukuoka.

The restaurant was a hidden gem in a local neighbourhood run by a lovely couple. The chef who seemed to be a big fan of Dragon Ball and football, was specialized in Edo style sushi, which is characterized by marinating the raw fish with mirin (sweet rice vinegar) and soy sauce.

Also I noticed that the rice they use for their kaisendon (seafood rice bowls) contained sesame seeds, cucumber and pollack roe, which was an interesting mix of flavours. It was fresh and delicious so I ended up ordering two bowls. If you ever have the chance I strongly recommend to pay them a visit.

Restaurant name: 二葉鮨三苫店

It took around 30 minutes from the restaurant to Fukuoka, the biggest city of Kyushu with a population of 1.5 million people right by the sea.

There will be more about Fukuoka and its surroundings in the following posts, stay tuned!

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