Today we arrived at our first stop in Japan. There are four main islands that make up Japan. It has a population of 112,078,679 and is a constitutional monarchy. The main religions of this country are Shinto and Buddhist (84% total.) The currency is the yen. Today we were on the southern most one, Kyushu, in the city of Kagoshima. We were docked at the Marine Port Kagoshima.
Our initial reaction to the port was one of surprise. They had a welcome sign in yellow flowers and a gift shop right off the ship that had Welcome Amsterdam on it. And there were even some signs in English.
We had breakfast in the Lido overlooking the still active volcano called Sakurajima.
Smoke and volcanic ash erupting (not lava and fire) – this happens many times a year.
We took a morning tour to the town of Chiran to see Samurai houses, their gardens, and then the Peace Museum. It took about 1 1/2 hours by bus to get there. On the way, our guide told us about Kagoshima and Japan in general.
Kagoshima is in Kagoshima Bay between two peninsulas, Satsuma and Osumi. It is smaller compared to other cities we will be visiting with a population of 6,000. The island of Kyushu offers a relatively calm refuge from the more frenetic northern areas. The city center was about a 20 to 25 minute bus ride from the port. It is clean and bustling.
From there, we went through beautiful countryside and mountainous areas with great view looking out over the ocean. We also went by tea fields. Tea is grown on a plant that is trimmed like a hedge (about 2-3 feet tall) all in neat rows. The best harvesting is in the spring. It is done by clipping off the new shoots which are the best and freshest.
We arrived in the small, quaint and wonderful town of Chiran. Our first stop was to see the Samurai homes with surrounding gardens. These were called castle-cities because instead of having one big castle as a fortress, the Samurai had lots of smaller outposts. We were not able to get into any of the homes (most of them are lived in by Samurai descendents), but we were able to see about 6 or so gardens around the homes. They were all “dry” gardens with raked sand and rock to represent water. The gardens are typically small, but representative of some of the Zen elements of land and water in balance.
A typical dry garden with everything trimmed neatly.
Hedges were trimmed to look like mountains while other smaller green plants represented islands. They were beautiful to see.
Before getting back on the bus, we walked along the main street of Chiran. The most fascinating part were the sidewalks with a narrow canal of water flowing by the walking area. In the water were fish – some a dark brown and some golden. It went on for blocks! Back on the bus, our guide gave us each a little kumquat (you eat the skin and all!)
Our next stop was the Peace Museum which is dedicated to the Japanese Kamikaze pilots. In the town along the streets and outside lining the entrance to the museum are stone lanterns – one for each lost pilot.
These stone lanterns are in a garden area outside the museum – each with a name on the base.
There are gardens all around the museum. Inside are relics, photographs, and personal letters and papers from these pilots. Some were translated into English and were most moving as they were the goodbye letters to their families – mainly addressed to their mothers. There were also models of the planes themselves.
We had a lecture to help us better understand what these pilots did and why. It was presented very well and in a neutral way. We learned that 1,036 pilots died between March and July of 1945 as they attacked Allied forces off Okinawa. The pilots were mostly between the ages of 17 and 22. They did this as the ultimate sacrifice for their parents and their country.
After the lecture we went outside to see the Triangle House - the place they spent the last few days of their lives writing their families and sometimes weeping under their blankets. We also saw the outdoor shrine to them as well. It was raining, so we couldn’t spend a lot of time walking around.
Back on the bus, and on the way back to the ship, we learned about the volcano we had seen across the bay at breakfast. It has 3 peaks, and the southern one is active. There was a devastating eruption in 1914 that killed many. In 2009 it erupted over 500 times, and in 2010 it has already erupted over 400 times. It is not the dangerous eruption with fire and lava like in 1914, just the dark smoke, etc. we saw this morning. To get to the base of this volcano, there are ferries that run every 15 minutes. There are about 5,000 people who live by the volcano. Students wear helmets to and from school. Because the land is rich from the volcanic ash, they grow the largest radishes (sweet) there and the smallest oranges.
Before we got back to the port, our guide sang a Japanese song for us, and then handed out sheet music for us to sing all together. It was kinda cute, actually. The song was called Sakura – which means cherry blossom. We had seen some pretty ones in bloom along side of the road today. We actually made it to Japan during their cherry blossom season!
Back at the port, they had some stalls set up serving samples of their food and green tea. We tried them and especially liked the sweet Jambo Mochi which is a pounded rice ball dipped in a hot, sweet sauce (similar to caramel) with two sticks poked into them for holding them.
We decided to skip lunch and take the courtesy shuttle into the downtown shopping area. It was a 25 minute drive – and it was raining. So, we ended up in their oldest and nicest department stores called Yamakataya. While we were trying to find it, a woman overheard us asking someone, and she offered to walk us there. Not only did she take us to the store, she walked in and took us to the scarf department I was looking for. We were overwhelmed by her kindness and willingness to go out of her way to help us as foreigners.
While the store was nice and very large, it really didn’t have what we were looking for. But, everyone was very nice and helpful – we tried finding Japanese pottery - and took us to the right department or floor. The elevators had a very nicely dressed young woman (white gloves and all) to operate the elevator. We saw two oriental women in the store with Holland America satchels, so we followed them back to the shuttle bus stop to return to the ship.
We had dinner with our regular group and then Doug worked in the room and I went to see the movie, Pavilion of Women, based on a book by Pearl Buck about life in China in the 1930s and a love story between a married woman and missionary. It was really good.
It continued to be a cold and wet and dreary night, plus the waves started getting larger as the night went on. So, we called it a day as we continued to sail along the Japanese coastline to Kobe, our next port of call.
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