Mojiko Retro Observation Room

Perched on the 31st floor of the Mojiko Retro Highmart tower, the Mojiko Retro Observation Room lifts visitors 103 metres above one of Japan's most atmospheric old harbours. The building was designed by Kisho Kurokawa, one of the country's most celebrated modern architects and a founder of the Metabolist movement, and from its glass-walled gallery you take in a sweeping 270-degree panorama of the Kanmon Strait - the slender, ship-crowded channel that separates Kyushu from the main island of Honshu.

Moji Port, or Mojiko, flourished as an international trading gateway in the Meiji and Taisho eras, and the district below the tower has been lovingly preserved as 'Mojiko Retro,' a cluster of red-brick warehouses, a former customs house, and grand early-twentieth-century commercial buildings. From the observation deck this handsome townscape spreads out beneath you like a model, framed on one side by the arc of the Kanmon Bridge and on the other by the harbour where freighters, ferries and fishing boats slip through the narrows. Across the water lies Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture, so close you feel you could touch it - at its tightest the strait is only about 700 metres wide.

The gallery is comfortably fitted for lingering. Digital telescopes magnify the scene up to seventeen times, letting you read the names on passing hulls or study the bridge towers, and a small cafe serves drinks and light bites so you can settle in with a coffee as the light shifts. Interpretive displays explain the strait's history as a strategic waterway and the story of the retro district below.

The view rewards visitors at any hour, but evening is magical. As the sun drops behind the hills of Honshu, the Kanmon Bridge switches on its lights, the retro buildings glow under warm illumination, and the wakes of ferries trace silver lines across the dark water. It is a gentler, more intimate night view than the vast city panoramas elsewhere in Kitakyushu - all maritime movement and historic charm rather than endless grids of light.

Getting there could hardly be easier. Mojiko Station, the northern terminus of the JR Kagoshima Main Line, is itself a beautifully restored 1914 wooden station building and a registered Important Cultural Property; from its doors it is a level eight-minute walk through the retro quarter to the Highmart tower, with brown tourist signs pointing the way. An elevator whisks you to the top. Admission is a modest 300 yen. Combine the deck with a stroll around the warehouses, a ride on the little Mojiko Retro sightseeing train, or a bowl of the district's signature baked curry, and you have a perfect half-day at the tip of Kyushu.