Kokura Castle in Blue por guen-k

I went to Kokura Castle in Fukuoka Prefecture. I enjoyed it a lot. The camera on my phone has been acting up lately, so I only have this photo that a friend took. I wore a helmet and a kimono. At the gift shop, they sold armor for pets. By the way, I am catching a wooden sword with my phone.

Recently, some official South Park merch was released in claw machines across Japan! Since one of the designated machine locations was relatively near where I live, I made a weekend trip of it and thought it would be fun to share a bit of it with y’all 🥰 This will mostly focus on the info about the plushies but also touch a bit on the place I went to to get them. Read on if you’re interested!

Thanks to a tip from my good pal @allymumu, I learned about two different South Park claw machine merch drops happening in March. First were these plastic cases:

As well as these plushie keychains:

None of the machines carrying the plastic cases were anywhere near me, however one machine with the plushie keychains was! So I decided to head over to AruAru City (a 6 floor mall devoted entirely to anime/manga/games that houses the Kitakyushu Manga Museum) in Kokura to try my hand at winning these guys.

Once there, the claw machine was actually incredibly difficult to locate. I searched around for a while along with my friend who joined me on this trip. Eventually, we had to ask an employee where the machine was.

As you can see, it definitely needed to be pointed out!

Claw machines in Japan aren’t usually stuffed with prizes so when we got to it, there were only 3 of the 4 plushies available to win at a time, with employees restocking whenever the machine ran out.

This was actually perfectly fine for me because I hadn’t been planning on trying to win Towelie. Sorry to all the Towelie stans out there but I don’t care that much for him 😅 Crane games are just as much about luck as they are skill so I didn’t want to waste any more money than necessary. Plus, the claw machine was small and close to the ground, so it was kind of uncomfortable crouching down and playing at it for an extended period of time.

Surprisingly, getting Kenny and Stan was relatively easy! Probably 5-6 tries each.

Which, at ¥100 (~$0.66 USD) a try, is a reasonable amount to spend.

Butters, however… well, he lived up to his name and kept slipping out of the claw every time I got a grip on him. I’d prefer not to specify exactly how much I spent trying to get him but let’s just say it was a lot 😭 My friend was able to win him for herself though so I do have a picture of all the boys!

They’re very soft and well made, perfectly palm sized 🥰 The elastic feels a little short sometimes if you plan on looping the entire plush through it to attach it to something (I did this with my belt loop to carry them around with me) but with some squishing they get through just fine.

Since going on a trip just to win some plushies seems a bit crazy, my friend and I visited some other cool places in Kokura the next day! Of course, the plushies came with us. ケニーちゃんはかわいいプリンセスだから, I of course brought him to Kokura Castle.

Then basically right down the street is the TOTO Museum, a museum dedicated to the company TOTO. However, since TOTO specializes in toilets, this place is more colloquially known as the Toilet Museum. Considering Stan’s last season trauma surrounding Japanese toilets, I thought it would help give him closure or something to learn their history.

All in all, a very fun and rewarding trip! I really hope there’s more claw machine merch drops relatively soon. If there are and I can go, I promise to share the info with y’all just like this! Hope you enjoyed 💕

Kokura Castle by Discover Fukuoka & Kyushu - Tenjin, Dazaifu, Yanagawa

kimono event at kokura castle

march 27, 2022

i was invited to make my kimono comeback!

ever since i did the fall kimono event (which you can read about here and see pictures of here), i knew i really wanted to participate in the spring event as well. since i’m leaving japan next year, i decided to go for it this spring instead of next spring.

i’m really glad i did, because the people i did the event with this time around were really really fun! last time i struggled a lot with footwear but this time i got smart and bought new shoes and i was able to really enjoy the process of taking photos in kimono. i enjoyed last time too, but being comfortable is such a game-changer haha. everything about this experience was fantastic and i really appreciate the organizers of the event and the photographer ao, who was super quick with sending us our edited photos.

Kokura Castle 🏰 in Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue

Kokura Castle, Japan

Kokura Castle Garden Light Up : Stairs to the Moon~Kizahashi~

Kizahashi means steps to go up and down. In this event, we’d like to visualize: a full moon rises and it reflects in a pond. Swaying moonlight appears and it turns into Kizahashi to reach to visitors.

Date and Location

1.  Date:18tht of October (Fri) ~ 22th of October (Tues), 18:30~21:00

2. Ticket Fee: adult - 1,000yen / elementary & middle school student - 500yen

(Included tea drinking)

Website: https://www.kokura-castle.jp/2019/10/1770/

Kokura Castle, Fukuoka's Symbol - Access, Highlights and Events

Kokura Castle is located in Fukuoka prefecture's Kita-Kyushu city. Parts of the present-day structure were rebuilt in 1959, giving the castle an eye-catching design. Today we tell you all about the castle highlights along with access information.

https://matcha-jp.com/en/4332

小倉城

細川忠興が築城した唐造の名城。再建天守だが、内部の展示は楽しめる。

内部はこんな感じ

Spring at Kokura Castle in Kitakyushu, Japan. Photo by Junji Higashi

Reading is an act of civilization; it's one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities. ~ Ben Okri #sonyalpha #sonya6000 #a6000 #kokuracastle #castle #nihon #japan #kokura #kitakyushu #honshu #japantravels #autumn2019 #autumn #history #japanesehistory #travels2019 (at Kokura, Kasuga-shi) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5sRRJWHfhH/?igshid=1jc1s98cskmn3

Kokura castle and 'Riverwalk' shopping centre. This is just by my workplace so I pass here often and it is such a relaxing place to be especially in the evening. The castle was burned down and rebuilt so it is a replica of the original building.

Kokura Castle in Kitakyushu by y9uuuuuu

Kokura castle moat #kokura #autumncolors #autumn #kitakuyshu #kitaq #北九州 #北q #小倉 #小倉城 #moat #castle #japanesecastle #autumninthecity #inthecity #seasoncolors #urbanautumn #jonai #城内 (at Kokura Castle)

大阪城に見に行った日は本当にきれいだったな。 The pictures from that day are much better than the ones at the Kyoto Imperial Palace.

内堀 Inner Moat 本丸の取り囲む堀で、南側を空堀とするほかは水堀となっている。寛永元年(1624)開始の徳川幕府による大坂城再築第2期工事により、豊臣時代の本丸に盛り土をほどこして石垣が築造された。幕府の命令によって動員された大名は豊前小倉藩細川家・加賀金沢藩前田家・因幡鳥取藩池田家・筑前福岡藩黒田家をはじめとする59家で、総延長は約2.7キロメートル、東側石垣の高さは水面から約24メートルに達する。本丸内には堀に面する石垣の角を中心に3層の櫓が11棟、2層の櫓が2棟そびえていたが、明治維新の大火により全て焼失した。 歴史街道

This moat surrounds the Hommaru (Inner Bailey) and its southern part is empty while the rest is water-filled. The stone walls were built by raising the ground level of the original Hommaru constructed during the Toyotomi period, as part of the second-phase of the reconstruction of Osaka Castle launched by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1624. The Tokugawa shogunate ordered 59 feudal lords, including the Hosokawa Family of Kokura in Buzen province, the Maeda Family of Kanazawa in Kaga, the Ikeda Family of Tottori in Inaba, and the Kuroda Family in Fukuoka in Chikuzen to participate in the reconstruction work. The entire length measures about 2.7 km and the height of the stone wall on the eastern side is about 24 m above the water level. Within the Hommaru, eleven three-roofed turrets and two two-roofed turrets were built, centering on the corners of the stone walls facing the moat, which were all lost to fire during the Meiji Restoration.

Vocab 内堀 (うちぼり) inner moat 本丸 (ほんまる) inner bailey, inner citadel 取り囲む (とりかこむ) to surround 堀 (ほり) moat 空堀 (からぼり) dry moat 水堀 (みずぼり) water-filled moat 寛永 (かんえい) Kan’ei era [2/30/1624-12/16/1644] 元年 (がんねん) first year [of a specific reign] 開始 (かいし) start, commencement 徳川 (とくがわ) Tokugawa [Tokugawa shogunate: 1603-1867] 幕府 (ばくふ) bakufu, shogunate 大阪城 (おおさかじょう) Osaka Castle 再築 (さいちく) rebuilding, reconstruction 工事 (こうじ) construction work 豊臣時代 (とよとみじだい) Toyotomi Period, part of 安土桃山時代 (あづちももやまじだい) Azuchi-Momoyama Period. I’m assuming this refers to when Toyomi was the head of government (1583-1598). 盛り土 (もりつち) raising the ground level 動員 (どういん) mobilization 大名 (だいみょう) daimyo 豊前 (ぶぜん) Buzen 小倉 (こくら) Kokura 藩 (はん) feudal domain, province 細川 (ほそがわ) Hosogawa 加賀 (かが) Kaga 金沢 (かなざわ) Kanazawa 前田 (まえだ) Maeda 因幡 (いなば) Inaba 鳥取 (とっとり) Tottori 池田 (いけだ) Ikeda 筑前 (ちくぜん) Chikuzen 福岡 (ふくおか) Fukuoka 黒田 (くろだ) Kuroda 総 (そう) whole, entire 延長 (えんちょう) extension, lengthening 石垣 (いしがき) stone wall 水面 (すいめん) water’s surface 達する (たっする) to reach, get to, arrive at 面する (めんする) to face on, look out on to on 層 (そう) story, floor 櫓 (やぐら) turret, watchtower 棟 (とう) counter for buildings, apartments, etc. そびえる to rise, tower, soar 維新 (いしん) reformation, revolution, revival 明治維新 (めいじいしん) Meiji Restoration 大火 (たいか) large fire 焼失 (しょうしつ) being destroyed by fire 街道 (かいどう) highway [particularly one existing from Edo period]