Walking around Riverwalk Kitakyushu

After leaving Mount Sarakura, we went to Kokura (小倉), an ancient castle town and the center of Kitakyushu. We had scheduled to go Kokura Castle (小倉城), but it was still closed because of earthquake-proof construction until next spring. So we went straight to the Riverwalk Kitakyushu (リバーウォーク北九州). 

We had a coffee break at Krispy Kreme's on the first floor. I ordered a chocolate doughnut and a small cup of white coffee. After that, we took a walk around there. 

I saw a big Christmas tree that is decorated in an open space. There's beautiful Xmas lights too!

Walking just a little to walk, we found Tokiwa Bridge (常盤橋), a wooden bridge that spans the upstream of Murasaki River. The bridge was built in 1995 so that some portion of the bridge was severely damaged in several places. Therefore, workers had come to inspect what is worse.

It was the starting point of the Nagasaki Kaido, a road across Kyushu from Kokura to Nagasaki, used by daimyo for the sankin kotai.

Smoke rising from the chimney of Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metals Kokura Plant. The plant was founded in 1918 as Kokura Steelmakers. In July 1953, the company was merged with Sumitomo Metal Industries, and renamed to the Sumitomo Metals Kokura Plant. The Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metals Corporation was established in October 2012 with the merger of the two companies. As a result of this merger, the Kokura Plant fully integrated into the Nippon Steel Yahata Plants in April 2014 and it becomes the Yahata Steel Works Kokura Branch.

I took pictures of Kokura Castle before going back to Katsuyama parking lot. It was a lovely sunny day, I took a beautiful one. Then we headed out to Moji, which is our final destination.