The second part of day two, still at the Kanmon Strait Museum.
After we finished the free area, we went upstairs to the paid area. The price was 500 yen, about £2.50. We were told to keep the tickets as there were games that used the QR code to access them.
The first part of the museum was a large circular room with a ramp going down. It was dark, with small foot lights to show the way. In the centre was a large screen that was showing the sealife in the strait. I wasn't really paying attention to it as I was concentrating on not falling over!
Once we got to the bottom, the room opened into a more traditional museum.
The history of the strait was laid out, beginning with a legend about how it formed.
According to legend, the third-century Empress Jingu, split a cave in the earth into two, forming the strait as she travelled south.
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| A depiction of the area before the cave split in two. |
I was really impressed with the exhibits, but I didn't take notes on what was what.
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| Hannah said this was the oldest exhibit there! |
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| Francis Xavier, first Christian Missionary to Japan. |
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| The type of ship that traded between China and Japan |
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| A steam/sail ship. |
We actually got lost trying to find the exit!
There was a small area about the Kanmon strait today, showing the ships that use the strait and port. Hannah decided to have a go at one of the games. The idea was to pilot a small boat across the strait.
When we eventually got out, Hannah went back to the gift shop to buy a couple of cats, not real ones, for herself.
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| The yellow one is from Kitakyushu, but I don't remember where the red one is from |
Hannah said that each prefecture has these cat toys; she wants to see how many she can collect!
It was still raining, so we got a taxi to a resturant near the next museum we wanted to visit.
We decided on Joyful, a family restaurant, it's a chain restaurant, I don't know if it's nationwide but I think most cities in Kyushu have one or two.
We ordered what looked like a small meal but was actually very big. Pork cutlet, fried shrimp, chicken karage, salad, rice and miso soup. One the photo it looked small but when it came we both looked at it, wondering how we were going to eat everything! The answer was slowly, very slowly.
We sat in there for a long time, just too stuffed to move!
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| Lunch! The rice looked a lot smaller on the menu. |
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| Feeling stuffed afterward. |
The museum was small but very interesting. It shows the history of the telephone from the begining to today.
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| First telelphones |
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| Phones that were used during the war |
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| Showing the internal working of a phone |
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| For an office, one reciever but two dials |
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| Old phone box, I couldn't get the date on this |
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| For fixing the telephone network |
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The last photo I thought was interesting. It shows some pay phones, there's a poster explaining how to use one. I think most kids today have no idea how to use them!
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| A mock up of an telephone exchange |
There were examples of cell phones and how they have evolved from the massive brick in a bag to todays smart phones. They had one of the orignal mobile phones that you could pick up to see how heavy it was. The sign said that it weighed about 3kgs. Hannah said that would be like carrying a baby around all day!
There was information about morse code as well. Hannah had a go.
There's a list on the right hand side showing how to make the different letters.
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| Japanese morse code. |
After the museum we got the bus back to the hotel. One nice thing travelling with Hannah is that she is very good a finding out buses and trains.
On the way back to the hotel we went past a small vintage clothes store.
We had noticed it on the first day but it was closed then. Today it was open so we went in.
It was absolutely packed with clothes.
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| Completely packed with clothes |
The owner was an interesting, elder gentleman. He had lived in France for 35 years! His wife is from Thailand, he said that when she first came to Japan she didn't like the food but now finds it healthy. We chatted for a while.
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| The owner of the shop. |
After that we went back to the hotel and collapsed!
We picked up some sushi and miso soup for dinner but didn't eat until late as we were still stuffed from lunch!
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| Dinner |
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| Hannah's cats |
Christopher called in the evening, there had been a small earthquake that was about a M1 where he was, he wanted to know if we had felt it. We hadn't but it played on my mind the next day!
I'll explain why tomorrow!
