Railway museum (of course)

Tom driving the Aso Boy.

Boys' day out today. Mummy decided she wanted to spend her life savings (100 yen at a time) in Daiso (Japan's biggest chain of 100 yen shops), so Tom and I headed off to the Kyushu Railway History Museum in Mojikō, at the very northern tip of Kyushu, just across the Kanmon straits from Honshu.

Most reviews had suggested that it was a very small museum, so I wasn't expecting much, and even less after admission for Tom and me cost less than £3. Turns out it was £3 very well spent though. It certainly wasn't as big as other railway museums we've visited in Japan, in Nagoya and Omiya, but it was beautifully done - you could clamber all over pretty much every locomotive, train and coach there, and there was an excellent model railway that showcased all the current trains operating in Kyushu. Best of all though, there was a mini-railway track where kids get to drive a train around a purpose built course. We turned up just in time for Tom to drive the Yufuin No Mori limited express (on which we rode on the first day of our rail pass last week). This cost a whole extra £2!

I drove this!

There was also an amazing shop where I could have spent a fortune, but somehow managed to limit myself to about 7 items.

All in all, we spent about 2 hours at the museum, then headed off in search of lunch - quite unsuccessfully. Mojikō is somewhat industrial (a port), and not exactly littered with eateries, so we decided to head a couple of stops down the line to Moji town in the hope that there would be more choice there. Wrong. We ended up walking round and round, before eventually having a gourmet lunch at, ahem, Mr. Donuts. Hardly great, but at least it was quick.

Heading home in style

After our feast, we got a rattly old local train under the sea to Shimonoseki on Honshu, and then an even older rattlier train to Shin-Shimonoseki, where we had planned to watch Shinkansen blasting through the station flat out (200 mph). We watched a couple fly by, and decided it would be more fun to actually have a ride, so caught a Rail Star one stop up the line to Asa, a town I'd never heard of. Now I know why - we took a short walk from the station to find a convenience store, which we did, but it was about as lively as Ibusuki. At least the two young ladies serving in Lawsons took a shine to Tom and told him about 8 times how 'kawaii' he was. He lapped it up.

We then headed back to Hakata on one of the amazing-looking 500 Series Shinkansen, although Tom had to share the kids' play area with about 7 other little ones this time. We then walked back to the flat to meet up with Nik, who apparently had had a good day's shopping, despite "disgracing" herself in Daiso.

Yakitori!

After showers and a very hot bath, we had dinner in a local yakitori (grilled chicken on sticks) restaurant. I noticed this place a few days ago and thought it looked promising. Dead right. The food was excellent and even after eating and drinking more than we should have, the bill only came to about £35. Bargain.

Really good day.