The Kanmon Straits (関門海峡, Kanmon-kaikyō?) or the Straits of Shimonoseki is the stretch of water separating two of Japan's four main islands. On the Honshū side of the water is Shimonoseki (下関, which contributed "Kan" (関) to the name of the strait) and on the Kyūshū side is Kitakyūshū, whose former city and present ward, Moji (門司), gave the strait its "mon" (門). The straits silt up at the rate of about 15 centimetres per annum, and dredging has made it possible to build the New Kitakyushu Airport at low cost.
Read more about Kanmon Straits: Population of Kanmon Area, Transportation Across The Straits, Commercial Importance, Historical Significance, Transportation
Famous quotes containing the word straits:
“Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune’s greedily coveted favours, they are consequently for the most part, very prone to credulity.”
—Baruch (Benedict)