Japan's 114-year-old battleship Mikasa: A relic of another time - CNET

The Mikasa, named for a mountain in Japan, first served in the Russo-Japanese War where she took part in several battles.

Just days after the war, the ship's magazine exploded, sinking the ship. Salvaged and put back into use, it served coastal duties until after WWI. Though the Washington Naval Treaty limited the number of battleships, the historical nature of the Mikasa led to it being preserved minus its engines.

The following decades weren't kind to the Mikasa. Normal decay was exacerbated by odd private ventures, including selling off many of its parts, and converting the deck into a dance hall and an aquarium.

In the '60s however, restoration began, retuing the ship largely to how it looked in its heyday.

Today, traveling about an hour by train from central Tokyo brings you to Yokosuka, the Mikasa's final home. It's a few minutes walk from the train station, but you can't miss it. Ships of all kinds float in Tokyo Bay, but the stacks, cables and guns of the Mikasa are certainly unique.

The tour itself is unguided, though there are often prerecorded stations scattered around which explain parts of the ship in English.

If you take your time, it takes about an hour to see the whole vessel. While the ship is not very big to begin with (432 feet/131.7m), there's almost nothing below deck. You see, the Mikasa isn't just encased in concrete, she's filled with it. The tour consists of the upper deck, the main deck, and the bridge, and though there's some storage down below, the rest is filled solid.

The restoration process may have begun 50 years ago but it is still ongoing. Many areas of the ship are fuished and look period-perfect. Others wait to be filled with artifacts of that era (and that hunt is ongoing). During my tour I happened to meet Captain Greg Kouta (JMSDF, Ret.) who is in charge of the Mikasa's restoration, as well as the ongoing preservation of the JMSDF Akishio which I had toured just a few days earlier.

Though the tour itself was short, it was a fascinating look at that middle-era of battleship design, after the steam-and-sails era, but before the massive dreadnought-era machines of the 20th century.