Kagoshima was great, I had a nice time there. I even spent my birthday there, but 5 nights was far too long to spend in Kagoshima. Basically there was not much to do. This wasn't much of a problem seeming as we wanted a break from the hectic travelling lifestyle, so we used Kagoshima's relaxed atmosphere to rest away.
On the first day we took a ferry out to the island of Sakurajima. Sakurajima is famous for it's live volcano that errupts every day, and in fact, it isn't even an island anymore. A massive erruption that occured a century ago joined the island to Japan making it more of a peninsula. The island was cool however, we went to a few observation points and even the foot spa and sauntered about really. The lack of transport on the island makes it difficult to get around so we had to stay near the port area. After the weather turned bad we went back to the shore of Kagoshima and waited for the rain to stop. Upon doing so, we grabbed some drinks and headed to the roof of the hostel.
"Oh My God Look!" shouts Hayley out of the blue, and as my eyes follow her pointing finger, there in the distance, the volcano had gone off. The erruption was phenomenal, even though it was only minor an ash cloud still rocketed into the air, spanning a great height. It was amazing to watch the erruption from start to finish and to witness the growth of the ash from a small cloud to an intense fog. Brilliant.
Our next day involved walking around the historic meiji area in the centre of Kagoshima. Kagoshima seems to have lots of statues, I think we walked past at least 25 in one day, each one different from the other. Some of them looked really cool. However, my lack of Japanese History knowledge left me thinking that I couldn't truly appreciate the statues for what they were for. The Meiji area however had several samurai houses and lots of shrines and samurai grave stones and was in general quite fascinating. Because Kagoshima was the main port of Japan at the time, the army was based mostly around the area to be ready for attacks from foreign countries, so there are a lot of sculptors and shrines showing evidence of the war. It was interesting, but too much to read, some went straight over my head. Guess it was the heat...and the falling ash.
The next couple of days involved walking and not really doing much. We saved some cash by just chilling out and relaxing in Onsens, which is always quite nice. We even had our first private onsen. Usually men and women are separated but by hiring a private onsen we could bathe together, which was lovely.
My Birthday was lovely. We went out for dinner at this lovely restaurant where in the middle of the table sits a live BBQ grill. A plate of meat is put down in front of you and you just barbeque away! It was delicious, cooking your own meat and just scoffing it down! It is a birthday meal I will not soon forget.
The last day of Kagoshima involved us heading back to Sakurajima. We felt we hadn't seen much the first time and this time we were ready to walk the long distances if we needed to, to see the sights. We headed a quarter of the way around the island on foot, which took about 15 minutes, to the point where two centuries ago, Sakurajima erupted and buried a small island. The field of outstretched molten rock was a sight to behold. It was hard to believe that an island lay buried underneath all the rock.. After that we walked a little further to an "All Night Music Concert" memorial. A couple of years ago a concert was held on Sakurajima and to celebrate it's popular outcome a memorial was built. The memorial is an eruption of music, or so it is described, and shows a man shreading a guitar bursting out of a huge rock pile, just like a volcanic eruption. It was sweet, and really detailed. It was worth the second visit to Sakurajima just to behold those sights.
We could not afford to go to Yakushima, so we booked an over night bus to Kyoto. And despite the fact that this is our second time in Kyoto we could not be more excited. We have not done much in Kagoshima and Kyoto had lots of sights that we did not get to see the first time round. I am as excited as ever to be in Kyoto, no matter that we have been here before.
We have five nights in Kyoto and then we are off to meet up with Jun for our fourth time and head to the anticipated Summer Sonic festival. The excitement is at an all time high...
Thanks for Reading.
Arigatou, Sayonara.
No comments:
Post a Comment