Hofu + Kitakyushu Tourist Passes

Hi All,

In mid April - I'll be visiting Hofu (Yamaguchi Prefecture) along with revisiting Kitakyushu/Kokura. Something that I've found at both locations are Tourist passes which both have their problems - or questions I don't know the answer to.

The first pass is the Hofu Tourist Pass (collected at tourist bureau found at the station). My main question is how much of the Mori Residence is included. Some websites claim it's just the garden, some claim it's just the residence, some claim it's just the museum. Any info from people who have visited Hofu or the Mori Residence I'd be happy to also hear from.

https://www.klook.com/activity/174832-yamaguchi-hofu-tourist-spots-pas...

https://mohri-museum.com/

The second pass is the Kitakyushu Pass which includes train rides in some locations along with a good list of attractions for 2000 yen. Does anyone know it's price or availability after April 1st? I've not been able to find anything yet

https://www.kitakyushu-tourpass.com/en/

FWIW I rarely even consider Klook passes, but I looked at the info and the museum websites. The pass is US $9.40 or currently 1500 yen. At many museums with a garden, some just let you visit the garden for a lesser fee, but at the Mori Museum they do have separate charges and a ticket for the main museum is separate from the garden. A combo ticket is 1200 yen, and a la carte they'd be 900 yen and 500 yen.
If you only want to see the Mori properties, it's be cheaper without the pass. But if you want to also see the Suo Kokubunji temple, they have an entrance fee of 500 yen (they are closed on Mondays also, BTW). Amidaji appears to be free from what I can see, except for the hydrangea season.

For the Kita Kyushu pass, the Japanese site states that they plan to renew the availability for after April 1 and they plan to open sales on March 25. It doesn’t mention a price change, so presumably it will be the same. You can get the Japanese site by choosing 日本語 from the Language dropdown menu.

https://www.kitakyushu-tourpass.com/
本チケットの販売期間は「2026年3月31日（火）まで」となっておりますが、来年度以降も販売を継続する予定です。また、現在、4月1日以降の「利用日設定」はできません。4月1日以降の利用日設定は、3月25日にオープンする予定です。

Gemini found this information for me in about 2 seconds although I had to ask it to provide the source, which it did immediately along with translation. Interestingly, ChatGPT did not find the information and told me that there was no official announcement yet, and stated that the pass is not scheduled to be available after March 31. Gemini won this round….

I didn’t try any of the bots on your first question. This might be less fruitful, but the technology is improving at lightning speed so you never know. I keep getting extremely informative results (along with some incorrect answers) from AI when I ask questions about Japan. Right now I am going through hundreds of photos that I took on my last trip so I can put them into a curated album, and I have questions about places I visited. The bots are teaching me a lot of interesting things, making my visits to places even richer in retrospect.

Thanks for the info everyone. I think I'll wait until I get to Hofu city and ask the Tourist Information Office directly about the parts of the Mori Building are included as it does not really seem worth it if it's only the garden.

Ken - have you visited this garden and museum? I'd be interested to hear your opinion.

Kim - thanks for the pickup on the Japanese page. I had a quick look myself before I posted but missed the worded difference between the Japanese and foreign language versions.

As the cablecar + train fare costs 1910 yen from Kokura station by itself, the 2000 yen cost seems good value