When the US airplane Bockscar took off on August 9, 1945 with
"Fat Man" (the second of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan), its
intended target was the city of Kokura, the endpoint of our ride today. This
city was selected because it was the site of one of Japan's largest munitions
plants. When the plane reached Kokura, there was a 70% cloud cover over the
city, which prevented the visual attack that was felt to be necessary. The
plane circled, but the cloud cover remained, so the flight was re-routed to the
secondary target of Nagasaki. In view of this, the term "Kokura luck"
was coined in Japan to refer to the lucky avoidance of a great misfortune.
The "Doubilet-Benson luck" continued today, as we
have now been in Japan for 12 days and have had perfect weather every day:
temperature in the 70's (or occasionally high 60's) without a drop of rain. Our
enjoyable ride today took us from a traditional Japanese Inn ("Ryokan")
in Fukuoka to an upscale modern hotel in Kokura.
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| Culture switch: Leaving a ryokan ... |
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| ... and arriving at a fancy modern hotel |
with plenty of fine sights in between:
