By the time this goes online, I’ll be in a departure lounge at Kansai International Sinking Airport. In honour of my return voyage, here’s a photo that the bus used to take me past on my way home from Kokura.

Contrary to what you might expect, it is not a proclamation that the land of peace, order and good government had been annexed by the largest country in the world.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Japanese characters translate as “gold field.” I can’t read any of the other characters, but I think it’s a company office of some kind. From what I can tell, there are little Kanadas sprinkled all over Japan. There’s a train that goes to Kanada in southeastern Fukuoka. There’s even a train to USA—I’ve taken it once, but only passed through on my way somewhere—though it doesn’t go anywhere near the Statue of Liberty.

And what’s with the sinking airport? Suffice to say that Kansai International Airport was built on a man-made island on a relatively unstable section of ocean floor. More info via google. At least it isn’t a stinking airport, which is the other option that comes to mind when I think about “airport built on landfill.”