Japan Study Abroad Program | Day 9 | May 18

Today, we went to the Kitakyushu Environment Museum, the Kitakyushu Innovation Gallery & Studio, and the TOTO Museum. 

The Environment Museum was our first stop, and we were met by our tour guide, Kota. He showed us a giant timeline on the wall that demonstrated the history of Yahata, which was a city before it was combined with neighboring cities to create Kitakyushu City. The timeline showed us the local history from the mid 1800's to the present. It also showed what they have done thus far to fix their mistakes, from the cleaning of Dokai Bay to creating clothes from plastic bottles. 

What made this museum visit more special was spending time with Miss Hamada, who has joined us for a good portion of our trip since we met her at Sone Tidelands last weekend. It was very sad to say good-bye to her for the last time. Miss Hamada was amazing to be with and we will all miss her very much. She talked about the importance of connecting with others especially when traveling in another country. We truly agree to her as she made our trip more memorable and meeting with her was also possible thanks to amazing people we got connected before and during the trip.

After Miss Hamada left, we went to the Kitakyushu Innovation Gallery & Studio, where we learned more about the industrial history of the Yahata Area. The history of the blast furnace and the challenges and struggles with the production of tetsu were highlighted in the exhibits. The Yawata Steel Works and Related Facilities are now registered as the World Heritage to tell stories how everything started in 1901. 

In the afternoon, we visited the TOTO museum, which was built to commemorate the TOTO's 100th year anniversary in 2017. The building itself is a CASBEE (an organization that evaluates and rates the environmental performance of buildings and the built environment: http://www.ibec.or.jp/CASBEE/english/) certified green building. The building has been designed to save energy, water, and to have the smallest possible footprint for the environment. We then got to see all of the new innovations that TOTO offers globally. We were amazed by how the business started by this passionate man who hoped to contribute for Japanese people to have more comfortable daily life and the company still seeks to produce the highest quality product. 

After the tour, we walked back to Tanga Table through an asashi (storm). We were all soaked and halfway back Blake decided to turned around (he wanted to find a better road to walk back to the hostel). Minutes later, Blake showed up at Tanga, soaking wet, and with a broken umbrella! (See picture below). Jason thought it was fun to walk in the warm rain like this today. 

We met up with a few international students at Kokura station for dinner.  It was a lot of fun, and the food was amazing as usual. Some of us tried Yaki-Udon, which is another unique dish in Kitakyushu. After dinner, we said goodbye to the students (sad!) and went back to Tanga Table. One of the students gave us an omiyage which we ate while we wrote the blog. 

For tomorrow, due to having a homestay, we may not have a blog, so if there is no blog tomorrow then expect a long entry the day after!

We were lucky to have Kota at the Environment Museum today! 

Miss Hamada, thank you for joining as well :)

Feeling the history of Higashida Blast Furnace I at its memorial park

You see "1901" on top, the year when Yawata Steel Works began operations.

Amazing products around the worl

Thank you, Watanabe-san (a guide from TOTO)
& Mizu-san (our wonderful translator from Mizu Trans Corporation)

Blake & his sad umbrella...!

Vocabulary:
Tetsu - Steel 
Arashi - Storm 
Omiyage - Gift

By Blake, Jason & Jonathan

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