Friday 11/01/19 Tanegashima

Mike holding Noriko's bag in Kagoshima style. He still doesn't let her carry her bags although her ankle is totally fine.. 

We went to the Tanegashima Space Museum and had a tour of the launch complex.

We didn't know how much it was going to cost to get there and when we got to the destination, the space centre, we realised that we had only 10000yen note. The bus driver was so kind and said we can pay that on the way back. It was 1740yen which is about $20 x2! 

Japan has been designing and launching their own rockets since the 60s. Their newest design is the H3, which they will start launching soon and hope will let them put people on the moon in about ten years. 

We joined a tour and we were so lucky to have a guide who could speak English. Since everyone else was Japanese, we ended up getting a personal guided tour! 

They had a complete but disassembled H2A rocket in a huge building. They discovered a design fault before launching so now it is an exhibit. 

The launch site is protected from lightning by big towers.

The control centre is at a safe distance. I was shocked to see them using a less than reliable operating system. 

Also a walk on the beach.

All kinds of "space food" in the gift shop. 

On the way to our guesthouse we stumbled across a traditional archery ceremony at the temple nearby. They were pretty good, but each arrow took about 5 minutes to shoot, so we left before the end.

After we watched four people's performances we decided to find our minshuku and we were about to leave the shrine then we saw a guy in uniform. He noticed us and offered to take us to the accommodation. They were police officers! They escorted us to the minshuku with their torches. There was no way we could have found the place without getting lost. It was in a hidden place. 

After checking in we went to Hotto Motto for dinner. It is a take away obento place. This noriben was just 300yen!!