Day 04: Shimonoseki to Mojiko (Jun 2019)

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Wednesday, 26th June 2019

Dark clouds greeted me this morning as I woke up on my 40th birthday in Japan. Not a great start for me as I had planned to commemorate this special day with a cross-island expedition between Honshu (Shimonoseki) and Kyushu (Mojiko) via the 780m Kanmon Pedestrian Tunnel. After responding to the well-wishes from my friends over whatsapp, I was soon on my way to Shimonoseki.

It didn't help that I had forgotten to bring along my jacket to counter the strong, icy winds along the coast. Thankfully, the rain that was almost guaranteed did not materialise eventually. After walking for a good 20 minutes, I soon reached the entrance of the undersea tunnel which would bring me across to Kyushu (Mojiko).

This was easy to navigate even though emerging from the Mojiko side of the tunnel meant that I had to catch a local bus in order to avoid the long walk to the town centre. I had always wanted to complete the cross-island expedition on foot and to be able to accomplish that on my birthday made it even more memorable.

I succumbed to the little treats along the way - honeycomb ice-cream, Mojiko baked curry rice and a strawberry shortcake + coffee to mark the occasion.

Indeed, this was a great morning to wake up to celebrate my 40th anniversary on earth!

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