"The Naples of Japan"

Our Shinkansen from Fukuoka to Kagoshima arrived, unsurprisingly, on time (I have to mention at this point, though, that our train from Fukuoka to Nagasaki was actually delayed by about 20 minutes - a rather shocking incident!). We hopped on the tramway and made our way to our hotel, rather conveniently located in the centre of town. Kagoshima is the southern-most city in Kyushu, and is known as the "Naples of Japan" (I think the nickname most likely comes from the fact that a volcano, Sakurajima, looms over Kagoshima...). We didn't notice any uncollected rubbish in the streets, at least... ;)

Having checked in at our hotel, we started hunting for a decent restaurant where we could have lunch. Mathilde had found a nice sushi restaurant on the internet before our trip, so we made our way to down to Dolphin Port, a kind of shopping centre near the port, and we did indeed find the sushi place - a revolving sushi bar. I love the concept - just pick what you like off the conveyer belt and eat it. Afterwards, they count the empty plates (which have different colours that indicate the price) and charge you accordingly. Quick, efficient and convenient. And not very expensive either - we paid about 1 euros 50 for a plate with two decent slices of Sashimi with rice. Again, we were quite amazed at how little we paid for such good food.

We dedicated the afternoon to Kagoshima's main tourist attraction - Sengan-en, a magnificent garden located just outside the city. The setting is pretty amazing, there are some mountains behind the gardens, and across the bay, Sakurajima looms high. A pity about the haze, the volcano wasn't very visible. The garden is certainly one of the most magnificent I've seen - the Japanese certainly know there stuff when it comes to gardens. Apart from the gardens, we also attended a guided visit of some of the traditional houses on the grounds (the lady guides are dressed in elegant kimonos, nice touch) - the visit ended with a cup of tea and some cakes - yummie. We also visited the museum next doors before taking the bus back to the town centre.

For dinner, we decided to go for something local, as often, and after consulting our guide books, we decided upon a place specializing in tofu. As often, we really struggled to find a place, but eventually, with the help of some friendly locals, we found the place. As I'm getting accustomed to write on this blog, the place was a real gem. There was basically not a word written in English anywhere, and the staff didn't speak much of it either (something we're starting to get used to with here in Japan...), but they more than made up for it with their friendliness and the delicious food (and again, amazing value for money...). We were kind of like the local attraction as well, we got along fabulously with the other customers (as the picture shows!). I also got the opportunity to try Shōchū, the local eau-de-vie they drink in Kyushu (especially here in Kagoshima).

The next day, we got up early, and headed down to the car rental agency. Yep, time to find out whether that driver's license translation from Tokyo is worth the paper it's printed on... After some communication difficulties, we eventually managed to get our car hired, and got a crash course in using  the GPS (a rather useful gadget in Japan - especially since you can type in a phone number as "address" - a very handy feature for those who don't want to learn to read/write Japanese alphabets!). The driving took a bit of getting used to, since not only the steering wheel is on the "wrong side", but the indicaters and windscreen wipers are also swapped around (needless to say, I kept switching on and off the wipers a lot!).

Our destination for the day was Kirishima national park, located just 80 km or so north of Kagoshima. We made our way to Ebino-Kogen - plateau in the middle of the park that's good for hiking. We did the easy two hour hike that takes in a couple of volcanic peaks (not currently active, thankfully!) as well as no less than three (if I remember correctly) volcanic lake. It was very nice to get out and about in the nature a bit, after what has so far been a quite urban holiday. The hike wasn't too strenuous, just right for us, given that we didn't have all day to spend here. And the views were rather magnificent. We were quite amused to find a huge group of Japanese students at the top of the first peak, all dressed in their identical school uniforms, all having lunch.

Having had our dose of nature, we headed back southwards, towards Ibusuki, which is located just south of Kagoshima, along the southern coast of Kyushu. The main reason for going to Ibusuki is to try the black-sand onsens the place is famous for. The concept is simple, wash yourself, dress up in a Yukatan, walk down to the beach, lie down in a dug up trench, and let one of the ladies working at the onsen cover your body with hot sand. I naturally had to try it - a very pleasant experience! Apparently some people find the experience somewhat claustrophobic - not me. I really enjoyed it!

We finished out trip in Kagoshima with another superb dinner - this time we got to grill our own food! Delicious! We felt a bit sad to leave for Kumamoto the next day, having the distinct feeling we hadn't accommodated Kagoshima the time it deserves. Oh well, there's never enough time to see everything...