In Japan, Kokura Kita ward is the north part of what used to be Kokura City before the merger of five cities to create Kitakyushu city in 1963. JR Kyushu's Kokura station is the main rail hub of Kitakyushu and the Shinkansen stops there. The largest commercial and shopping areas of Kitakyushu, mainly in Uomachi ( 魚町　"fish town"), are clustered round the railhead.

The two main department stores are Isetan (next to Kokura station) and Izutsuya (next to the Murasaki river and opposite Riverwalk). The Tanga market is a traditional open-air market where fresh fish, meat and vegetables are the main produce for sale. The head office of TOTO Ltd. is here also.

Kokura castle (built by the Hosokawa family in 1602) and the Riverwalk shopping complex (completed in 2003) are about a ten-minute walk from JR Kokura station. So also is the house once inhabited by Mori Ogai when he was a doctor to the Kokura garrison and wrote Kokura Nikki (Kokura diary).

The Kitakyushu monorail terminus is in Kokura station and serves the commuters and residents living in Kokura Kita and Kokura Minami wards. There are not many monorails in Japan. One recently opened in Okinawa and another runs from Tokyo's Haneda airport to Hamamatsu-cho in Tokyo.

Statistics

Population: 184,545 persons (Heisei 12, 2000 - national census)

Area: 39.27km²

See also

Other wards of Kitakyushu:

• Kokura Minami
• Moji
• Tobata
• Yahata Higashi
• Yahata Nishi
• Wakamatsu

External links

• Kokura Kita ward office - official site in Japanese
• Matsumoto Seicho Memorial museum - near Kokura castle
• Riverwalk Kitakyushu (Japanese)