DYA717 Japan Dan's Sanin Sanyo Oct 31, 2017 Sshimonoseki Chofu
DYA717 Oct 31, 2017 Shimonoseki Chofu 6:30 a.m. Toyoko Inn breakfast. I looked around and folks were eating curry/rice – I guess I missed the curry on the 1st pass so had to go back up and get a small bowl to try it out. ONO! Went down to the train station and picked up an all-day pass. Hopped on the bus and got off at the Kanmon Pedestrian Tunnel stop. This tunnel goes under the water and you can walk from Honshu to Kyushu for free. Lots of people walking pretty fast – looks like for some this is their regular exercise path. Got up roadside on the Kyushu side, watched the tides going out for a while. The water flows pretty fast and it changes tides about 4 times daily. Since this is the narrow part of the strait, it looks like a river flowing. Really fast flow! Enough. I went back into the tunnel to walk back to the Shimonoseki side. Took me 9-minutes each way. The tunnel is about 780-meters long (a little less than ½-mile one way). Jumped on the bus and got off in Chofu castle town. This town has a lot of history from B.C. times and they had a federal government back in 7 A.D. However, not much has been preserved so you a fairly modern suberb. I by-passed the History Museum and visited the Kozanji Temple. It was built around 1320 and is a national treasure. Visited Shozanji Temple and then found a quaint café. Stopped for lunch. More BURA-BURA then back on the bus. Stopped at the Akama Shrine which is dedicated to Emporer Antoku. Finally went around near the hotel looking for dinner.
Kinzan Kōzan-ji Temple
This is another Zen Buddhist temple, similar to Kōmyōzen-ji. The 'Temple' in both the aforementioned video's title as well as this one is redundant (that's what the 'ji' means), however for the sake of consistency I've kept them as they are.