This was a rather quiet day because we didn’t get into port until after 10AM and our excursion left at 1PM.

Our first destination was Mount Sarakura, Mount Sarakura is one of the major peaks of the Hobashira Mountains, and the most popular peak for visitors on the mountains. The Sarakurayama Cable Car and Sarakurayama Slope Car allow visitors to travel to the top from Yahata. A short walk from the slope car station are several buildings that house transmitters for TV and radio stations that serve Kitakyushu and the surrounding area.

It was interesting to take the cable car and then the “slope car” up to the top. The views were reduced due to the amount of dust blowing across the Japan Sea from China’s deserts.

From there we headed to the museum. Now, I was really looking forward to going to a museum and not going to another shrine, temple or park. It’s kinda like going through Italy; how many churches do you really need to visit? Anyway, it’s the TOTO museum and I was totally surprised that it wasn’t an art or historical museum, it is a toilet museum. Seriously.

TOTO made the first ceramic toilet in the early 1900s and grew the business to include a wide variety of household fixtures. Their signature product is the Washlet.

I don’t know what else to say about toilets.

From there we went to an observation point where we had better view of the strait and had a view of our ship.

The big event of the evening was the French Chef’s Table dinner. As always, the food and presentation were outstanding. The table of 12 was a riot given that it was the 4 of us and 8 Australians who were a hoot.