Thanks so much for taking the time to share all of the great information about KitaKyushu in your comment! I’ll be sure to check out some of the sights the next time I am in the area and I hope other readers will too.

The best is to start in Kanmon Strait (Shimonoseki + Kitakyushu) where the Dan-no-ura battle was held, and also the place where the famous samurai Musashi and Kojiro fought. There is fish market, Aquarium and Akama Shrine on the Shimonoseki side. In Kitakyushu side you can see many buildings from Meiji era, including Mojiko Station.

Then a visit to Kokura Caste is nice to see how was the place during Edo period (English movie aviable).

At the night is it possible to go up to Sarakura-yama which is the tallest mountain in the city and can be seen virtually fro every point in it. From there you can see all the city and is designated as one of the top-three views from a mountain (other one is Hakodate in Hokkaido, and the other I don’t remember but is in wikipedia).

There is a theme park called Space-World which has roller coasters, including Zaturn, and a space ship mock.

There are also some Parks, as “Green Park” has a good area of Rose flowers in december and many others such as tulips. You can touch and play with kangaroos and there is a observatory tower that goes up like a UFO.

You can see “Wakato Bridge” it was the longest suspension bridge when it was built and is very similar to San Francisco`s Golden Gate. Some othe Meiji Buildings as well and a Kappa walking course that include a “Kappa Shrine”.

You can eat “Udon” in Orio Station which is famous and very delicious.

At south of Kitakyushu there is a Krast field but I would recommend better Akiyoshidai in Yamaguchi prefecture.

If you come by airplane you cansee Maitel (a character by Leiji Matsumoto) animatronic in Kitakyushu airport.

There are some interesting museums, including TOTO toilet museum haha. There is also a environment museum, natural science museum, art museum. There is also a “Eco Town” where you can see how the garbage is recycled as Kitakyushu wants to be an example of Environment protection city. Even you can see fireflies which do not live in dirty places.