Odo Park, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka

Before going to Marinoa City, we took a rest at Odo Park (小戸公園) in Odo, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka. It is located on the coast of Hakata Bay where you can see nearby places, Nokonoshima (能古島) Island and Odo Yacht Harbor (小戸ヨットハーバー). Like most parks of Japan, there are some multi-propose facilities, such as sports ground that everyone can play baseball, soccer etc. And open spaces for BBQ is also provided in this park. 

Walking is fun in the park, I can relax my mind while walking a promenade along the coast. I took some pictures of coastlines, the marina right next to the park, a small Nokonoshima Island facing to the west and the Imajuku district on the opposite shore of Imazu Bay.

Odo Yacht Harbor

Nokonoshima Island

A view of the Imajuku area located on the opposite coast of Imazu Bay.

I also took a panorama view of Shikanoshima (志賀島) Island and Umi-no-nakamichi (海ノ中道) across to the Hakata Bay.

Window Shopping at Marinoa City Fukuoka (マリノアシティ福岡)

Yesterday, we had decided to take a drive to the Marinoa City Fukuoka outlet mall. Facing to the Hakata Bay, this seaside place is gathered various shops such as outlet mall.

The Pier Walk shopping and restaurant zone and Sky Wheel Ferris wheel. The Sky Wheel takes you a 360 panoramic tour to the Hakata Bay and Fukuoka city in 12 minutes. Previously, there was a huge Ferris wheel called Sky Dream, but it has stopped services in 2009 and has been removed now.  

Outlet mall seen from a pathway on the second floor of Pier Walk.

Fukuoka skyline from observation deck: Fukuoka Girls High School and high-rise apartments of Atagohama area in the foreground, Hilton Sea Hawk and Fukuoka Tower in the center picture, and West Fukuoka Marina in the background.

I had also tried to take a picture of the Pier Walk, a hotel and West Fukuoka Marina from Meinohama Fishing Port which is located on the opposite side.

Strolling around Wakamatsu's retro street

Taking a short break at Hatsu beach of Okagaki, we further down the National Highway 495 to Wakamatsu which is our final destination. Wakamatsu is one of the seven wards of Kitakyushu. The ward is located in the northwestern part of the city, and the majority of the land is occupied by the Wakamatsu Peninsula.

We walked the Wakamatsu Minami-dori retro street aka.Wakamatsu bund (若松バンド) between Wakamatsu Station and the Wakato Bridge. Some Western-style buildings are remaining along the sea-front street, such as the Old Furukawa Mining Wakamatsu Building. This building is a made of brick which was built in 1919.

The brick building seems from the sea-front street.

Views of Wakato Bridge and Tobata Ward from nearby the Wakato Ferry Terminal. The red-light bridge that connects between Wakamatsu and Tobata Wards. The bridge was first opened in September 1962. This was the beginning of long-span bridges in Japan; it was the largest suspension bridge in Asia at that time.

A distant view of Mount Sakuraka from the retro street on the south of the ferry terminal.

The old Gonzo-goya (ごんぞう小屋) rest house in the middle of the bund. It was used as a resting place of harbor workers who provided loading coal to ship in the Meiji era. Once the house was disappeared because of waterfront development, but was rebuilt in the 2000s.

Beaches in Hatsu, Okagaki, Fukuoka

Driving on Fukuoka Prefectural Route 300 from Kanezaki along the beautiful Hibikinada (響灘) coast, we arrived to the Hatsu (波津) district of Okagaki Town (岡垣町 -machi). As a part of the Genkai Quasi-National Park, the calm shallow Sanri-matsubara (三里松原) pine grove beach extended from here to Ashiya Town (芦屋町 -machi). It's a length of 6 kilometers between both places.

Panoramic view of Sanri-matsubara beach. It has been selected as a hakusa-seishō (白砂青松) or the best 100 beach in Japan.

In the old times, the wife of Emperor Chūai, Empress Jingū, came here during the legendary military invasion of Korea in the 3rd century. She had stayed Kashii-gu (香椎宮) Shrine, Fukuoka on the way. On that day, it was blowing the strong see breeze. She had put pine groves in order to avoid strong winds.

Visiting to Orihata-jinja (織幡神社), Munakata, Fukuoka

We went to the Orihata-jinja (織幡神社) Shinto shrine (aka. Orihata-gu 織幡宮) near the Kanezaki fishing port. The shrine, also known as the birthplace of women shell divers which means ama (海女) in Japanese, is located at the foot of small mountain.

About 200m further down the road from the fishing port, you can find a stone torii with small ropes on the pilgrimage route.

Walking towards the main shrine at the top of the hill, you'll see two monuments that are related with the history of the shrine. On the left side, there is the monument of giant stone which the local residents were discovered instead of the sinking temple bell from Korea and China a long time ago. And a statue of women shell divers that symbolizes the birthplace of women divers in Western Japan on the opposite side. They were working away from home and a big success as a diver.

Steep stairs continue for a while.

When going up the last stairs, we arrived at the main shrine.

Haiden or the hall of worship. We prey for the family of health and welfare.

We stopped at the best place for viewing the fishing port.

Visiting to Kanezaki (鐘崎) fishing port, Munakata, Fukuoka

After having a short break at nearby Satsuki-matsubara beach, we went to Kanezaki fishing port. Kanezaki is Munakata's leading fishing port with tons of fish landings, e.g. fugu (globe fish), squid, mackerel and so on. It's located on the border of seas surrounding the port, the Sea of Genkai (玄界灘 -nada) and Hibikinada (響灘) Sea.

Anchoring fishing boats at the inner harbor with Jinoshima (地の島) Island and Cape Kanenomisaki (金の岬) in the background.

Squid-fishing vessels gathering together on the north side.

During photo shooting, my mom brought some fresh seafood of squid and mackerel at the Kanenomisaki Live Fish Center right next to the Kanezaki fishery cooperatives refrigerator in the center picture. We cooked them after coming back to home.

Then we headed off to the closest shrine, Orihata-jinja (織幡神社) at the tip of the Cape Kanenomisaki.


 

Satsuki Matsubara (さつき松原), a beautiful sandy beach in Munakata, Fukuoka

Before going to Kanezaki (鐘崎), we stopped at Satsuki Matsubara, a beach in Munakata city, Fukuoka. As a part of the Genkai National Park, the vast pine grove beach extended from Konominato (神湊) to Kanezaki. It's a length of 5.5 kilometers between both places.

Panorama view of Oshima (大島) Island. It's the largest Island of Fukuoka Prefecture and has many attractions, such as beach, a tiny island where allows you to go across to the sea at low tide, the Windmill observatory can be looking at the stunning views of the Genkai Islands. A notable sightseeing spot is Nakatsu-gu (中津宮), a collection of the three Munakata-taisha Grand Shrines on a small hill side near the ferry terminal.

From here, we can take a closer views of Jinoshima (地島) Island and Cape Kanenosaki (金の崎岬). Jinoshima is another island in the east of Oshima Island. Kanezaki is Munakata's leading fishing port with tons of fish landings, e.g. fugu (globe fish), squid, mackerel and so on.

A close-up view of Jinoshima.

Plane spotting at FUK on 30 September 2015/2015年9月30日福岡空港での飛行機たち

Yesterday, I went to the airport to see planes takeoff and landing. I was staying there about three hours from 11am to 2pm. Some flights especially to/from Taipei has been delayed because of the most recent typhoon Dujuan arriving at the north coast of Taiwan on Monday.
昨日は飛行機を見に行きました。午前11時から昼2時ごろまでの3時間ほどいたのですが、台北から来る便が去る28日の台風21号の到来で影響が出ていて、発着が遅れたりしていました。

Let's start uploading.
それではUPしてゆきます。

At 11:23 am, an EVA Air flight BR106 from Taipei was landing on Rwy 16.
午前11時23分にエバー航空の台北発BR106便が滑走路16へ着陸。

Originally, this flight was scheduled to be operated by the normal Kitty jet, but they sent Boeing 777-300ERs instead under the influence of the typhoon. It's my favorite plane, I was so lucky to see it again.
当初この便は通常のキティジェットで運航する予定でしたが、台風の影響で僕の好きな機種であるB777-300ERに機材変更していました。

9 minutes after, an Air China flight CA803 from Shanghai was landing.
9分後中国国際航空の上海発CA803便が着陸。

I kept taking pictures after moving to the Rwy 16 end.
滑走路16エンドへ移動後、撮影を続けました。


A China Airlines flight CA116 from Taipei was taxiing after landing on Rwy 16 at 12:15 pm.
午後12時15分チャイナエアライン（中華航空）の台北発CI116便が滑走路16へ着陸後タキシング中。

The plane was scheduled to arrive the evening at 5pm of the day before, but it was about 19 hours behind the influence of the typhoon.
当機は前日の夕方5時に到着する予定でしたが、台風の影響で約19時間遅れとなりました。

At 12:35 pm, an Air China flight CA804 to Shanghai was taking off.
午後12時35分：中国国際航空の上海行きCA804便が離陸。

The plane made a 90 degree turn to the right immediately after takeoff.
飛行機は離陸後すぐに右へ90度旋回。

At 12:44 pm, a China Airline flight CI 110 from Taipei was taxiing after landing. This flight has arrived in about 16 hours late.
午後12時44分：チャイナエアラインの台北発CI110便が着陸後タキシング中。こちらは16時間遅れで到着しています。

The BR105 return flight to Taipei was taking off at 1:24 pm. The flight was delayed 45 minutes because of bad weather typhoon.
午後1時24分にエバー航空の台北行き折り返し便であるBR105便が離陸。この便も台風の余波に伴う悪天候で予定より45分遅れで出発しました。

She was a gorgeous takeoff with a powerful GE90 engine sound.
離陸時にパワフルなGE90エンジンの音が鳴り渡っていました。

At 2:07 pm, a Juneyao Airlines flight HO1389 from Shanghai was taxiing after landing. The airline began operating a scheduled service to Fukuoka on 25 June.
午後2時07分：吉祥航空の上海発HO1389便が着陸後タキシング中。同社は去る6月25日から福岡線を新規就航しています。

I had tried to take a up-close picture of the plane during taxi.
タキシング中の飛行機を間近で撮影して見ました。

And one more thing is a Cathay Pacific flight CX510 flight from Hong Kong via Taipei has arrived at 2:56 pm, 17 hours behind schedule. At that time, I already left from the airport and was in Dazaifu. When I was looking at the sky at about 4:30 pm, Cathay Pacific's A330-300 plane was flying over there! I was wandering why they're flying in this time zone, so I was checking flight status on the Internet afterwards. The answer is the aftermath of typhoon Dujuan. The flight left Hong Kong International Airport at 3:27 pm, 12 minutes behind schedule and arrived Taipei Taoyuan International Airport at 6:36 pm, in about 1 hour and 45 minutes late. Once the plane was taking off at 8:08 pm and headed toward Fukuoka. Because of unstable weather conditions after the typhoon and the Fukuoka Airport runway will be closed at 11pm, they didn't give a landing permission for these reasons. After only a 56 minute flight, the plane turned back to Taipei. All passengers headed to the hotel near the airport by bus. They spent there one night and headed down to Fukuoka on the same flight left in the morning, at 11:29 am.
さらにキャセイパシフィック航空の香港発台北経由CX510便が予定より17時間遅れの午後2時56分に到着しています。すでにそのときは空港を出て太宰府にいたのですが、午後4時30分過ぎに上空を眺めているとキャセイのA330-300機が飛行していたのでなぜこの時間帯に飛んでいるのかと思い、後で同社HPの運航状況を見ていると台風21号の余波で香港を出発したのが予定より12分遅い午後3時27分。台北桃園空港には予定より1時間45分遅れである午後6時36分に到着。午後8時08分に一旦福岡へ向けて飛び立ったものの、台風通過後の不安定な気象状況および福岡空港の滑走路が午後11時で閉鎖になるなどの理由で着陸許可が下りずに56分間の飛行後、飛行機は引き返し台北へ。全ての乗客はバスで近くのホテルに向かい現地で一泊後、翌11時29分発の同便で福岡へ。