William The popular animation “One Piece” has nothing to do with Kumamoto save that its creator, Oda Eiichiro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiichiro_Oda, was born here and has been giving back by donating sculptures of his characters to draw tourists. Recently, a sculpture of his character “Jinbei” was erected at Sumiyoshi Kaigan Park (住吉海岸公園) in Uto City. The park is adjacent to Ariake Sea, which has some of the most expansive mudflats in the world and is famous for the Nagabeta Seabed Road (Nagabetakaisyouro, 長部田海床路), also known as “The Road Leading to the Sea” (Umi e to tsudzuku michi, 海へと続く道). The 1km road, immensely popular with photographers, was completed in 1973 to allow fishermen to access the sea at low tide. The road disappears completely at high tide, and at night the lights of 24 utility poles illuminate the surface of the water like something out of Ghibli. The producer of a shochu commercial which helped popularize the road noted, “The road that appears and vanishes: it overlaps with the fragility of life.” Kumanichi has the details: https://kumanichi.com/articles/737593