Riverwalk Kitakyushu is a vast pink-and-ochre shopping complex that opened in 2003 directly across the moat from Kokura Castle. The architect — Jon Jerde, the same firm behind Roppongi Hills in Tokyo — wanted a building that played off the river and the castle, and the result is striking from a distance even if up close it is unmistakably a shopping mall.
Inside there are department stores, restaurants, a cinema, a small NHK studio, the Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center, and the campus of Kitakyushu University of Art and Design. The rooftop terrace is one of the better places in the city for a view back over the castle keep at sunset.