I’ve been to Kokura before, very briefly at dusk, when the castle was already closed. This visit, almost 10 years later, was also brief, but happened in the morning. I was among the first visitors to the castle museum right after opening, so it was nice and quiet there, with views from the top made more interesting by beautiful morning light.

Having finished with the castle I still had some time to spend, so I headed to the adjacent garden and got myself some more views – both pretty, in a traditional-Japanese-garden way, and weird, with modern shopping center serving as a backdrop to the traditional garden. Someone didn’t quite think it through when doing city planning.

But I enjoyed my morning here. There’s probably other sights in Kokura besides the castle and garden – maybe I’ll visit them on another occasion.

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Practicalities

I came by shinkansen from Kobe (my previous stop on this journey) and stayed for one night at Kokura Station Hotel which, as you can guess from its name, is conveniently located inside the Kokura station. I had to leave the city next day before noon, so I had only a few hours to explore.