The New Fukuoka Tower

The New Fukuoka Tower stands next to the beach in the Momochi District of Fukuoka City.

Kouhayou is a monumental sculpture by Kyubei Kiyomizu ( 1922-2006) installed on the approach to Fukuoka Tower.

The reason it is called the New Fukuoka Tower is because an older, much smaller tower still stands at Hakata Port.

At 234 meters in height it is the tallest seaside tower in Japan, though the highest observation deck is only at 123 meters.

The final 111 meters of the tower is a TV mast.

The tower has an unusual triangular cross-section.

It was built in 1989 by Nikken Sekkei.

The elevator whisks you to the observation deck in 70 seconds.

The exterior is clad in half-mirrored glass, enabling visitors to see outside as they ride the elevator.

The tower is open from 09:30 to 22:00. Entry is 1,000 yen for adults.

In the evenings the exterior of the tower shows a variety of illumination displays, changing with the seasons and for special events.

Marizon, a pier that extends out from the beach into the sea in front of the tower is home to numerous shops and eateries.

The previous post in this series on the modern architecture of Fukuoka was on Fukuoka City Museum

Yamatogen Shrine

 

Along an uninhabited stretch of the Numata River north bank, with Kochi being the next settlement, stands Yamatogen Shrine.

After the torii the way to the shrine crosses the railway tracks, a not too uncommon situation and when I appraoched the shrine I was very, very surprised to see this.....

A rope snake wrapped around a tree!!!!!.... this was called Omoto in my area, and ojin in Izumo and on the Oki Islands.

It is a remnant of a type of religious practice that was much more common in earlier days, a serpent representing the local land kami.

This was the first time to see one in Hiroshima although I have visited quite a few shrines in the mountains of Hiroshima, especially along the Gonokawa River and around Miyoshi...

The shrine was obviously of some importance as the banners were up for the annual matsuri

But I could find almost no information on the shrine except for one site suggesting the kami was Amenokoyane, the ancestral kami of the Fujiwara....

The way the serpent was wrapped around the tree and climbing up it was very reminiscent of how I had seen some in the Oki Islands. An enigma wrapped in a mystery.

The previous post in this series on day 14 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the Hiroshima Airport Bridge a little downstream...

To Kirara Taki

 

After leaving the cannons of Tebikigaura Daiba Park my route along the coast follows Route 9 and the railway.

This section of coast has a lot of rocks, many just a little submerged and makes sailing close to the coast quite difficult. While sailing with a friend in a yacht with a keel, we scraped rocks a couple of times.

the road and railway are quite high above the water for this section.

The cape of the Shimane Peninsula ahead beckons.

A little further ahead is the Tagi fishing harbour.

Back in the town at the mouth of the river is a harbour, and I often see huge floating cranes moored there, but this harbour further along the coast has the Japan Fisheries building.

Up ahead the two wind generators on the hill above Kirara Taki, the michi-no-eki.

Then, another small harbour. I actually know this one quite well as my friend had his yacht moored here.

The road descends slightly and I pass through what is called Oda.... Little Paddy, not Big Paddy.

The small Oda River empties into the sea...

And then the beaches begin...

The area around Kirara Taki, the largish Michi no Eki, literally "road station" , a kind of service area without gas stations...

In recent years they have developed the area as a beach resort....

The beaches don't really compare with the ones we have down in Iwami..... but most of the population of Shimane lives in this end of the prefecture, so its the best they have I guess....

The previous post in this series on my walk along the Japan Sea Coast was on Tebikigaura Park.

Hiroshima Sky Arch Biggest Arch Bridge in Japan

 

Nicknamed the Hiroshima Sky Arch, this bridge that crosses the Numata River is the biggest arch bridge in Japan.

The bridge is 800 meters wide and the arch measures 380 meters.

The road is 190 meters above the river, and the tallest piers supporting the bridge are 95.6 meters and 89.5 meters, the second and third highest concrete piers in Japan.

The bridge was opened in 2011 and was expected to improve traffic access to Hiroshima Airport from the northern part of the prefecture. I cant find the exact figures, but I believe not much traffic uses it...

The previous post was on Bakusetsu Waterfall a little downstream.