Time Skip: Kagoshima Day Trip

So, I know I'm skipping ahead a few weeks here, but I'd like to write about our trip on Sunday while it's still fairly fresh in my mind.

Kagoshima City, near Kagoshima Chuo Eki

Sunday morning Jillian and I made a day-trip to Kagoshima, about a two-hour bus ride south of Miyazaki. We woke up before dawn in order to catch the 6:50 train, and after a quick breakfast of bagel sandwiches, we caught the 7:50 express bus from Miyako City Station to Kagoshima Chuo Eki.

The bus we rode was pretty luxurious. There were three rows of seats, with aisles in between, and each seat was kind of like an airplane seat, minus the tray-table. (They did have footrests and little pockets for headphones and sick-bags, though) The bus ride even featured a movie, which was a touching story about a genius pianist who is crippled by a gunshot wound to the hand during a mugging, so he teaches a young disabled girl how to play. (Or something like that)

Upon arrival, it took us a little while to get our bearings, since neither Jill or I had been to Kagoshima before. With the help of the traveler's information center, we purchased a 600 yen bus pass that we could use on the city view tour buses all day, and also got a discount to all of Kagoshima's sight-seeing attractions.

Statue near the bus and train station commemorating the group of Satsuma-Clan students smuggled into the Europe to learn about Western culture and technology during the Tokugawa Isolation Edict in the mid-late nineteenth century.

Our first stop was the Meiji Restoration Museum, which Tsutsumi-Sensei, my Japanese Culture professor from last quarter, recommended I go see. The ladies in the museum all wore really interesting uniforms.

Museum Ladies

The Meiji Restoration Museum focuses mostly on Saigo Takamori, hero of the Satsuma Clan. (Kagoshima was actually called Satsuma a long time ago) The city has large bronze statues of many Satsuma clan members throughout, who all played vital roles in returning power to the imperial family at the end of the Edo Period from the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Saigo Takamori, Hero of the Meiji Restoration, some goof ball, and Okubo Toshimichi, who brought many forms of advanced technology back to Japan from Europe and North America.

One of the neatest things about the Meiji Restoration Museum is that it's a really interactive experience. Not only are there guided tours as one would typically expect, but in addition to the various exhibits and artifacts, they also have period replicas of clothing from the Meiji era that you can try on!

Jillian sporting a replica of Saigo Takamori's jacket. (That's a model of Saigo's dog to her right)

The museum even had a Satsuma Clan video game for children to play, and models and examples of technology that Toshimichi-san brought back from the west that you could touch and operate. (They have, of course, been modified for safety) The museum's biggest attraction is the Meiji ドラマ (DoRaMa, or Drama). Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures of this particular attraction, but essentially it was a spectacle of light and sound, including a movie, animatronic historical figures, (including Takamori-san and Toshimichi-san, of course) and lightning, snow, and fire light effects. Jillian and I were provided with headphones for an English translation, although we were able to catch the gist of the Japanese even without them.

Satsuma Clan Video Game

Another cool exhibit featured tiny holographic images of people reenacting scenes from the end of the Edo period. (Shortly after Commodore Perry and his black ships arrived demanding that Japan open its ports for trade)

Tiny, ghostly holo-people.

To me, this particular museum is a really good example of Japan's tendency to copy things that other countries have done, but then implement them in a different way. (Japan has been doing this for centuries, starting with many forms of art, architecture and lifestyle from China., including their writing system.) By this I don't just mean the models of western technology and dress featured in the museum that Japan began to mimic from the west, but the museum itself.

Model of a Japanese ship developed from a Western design.

For example, the animatronic people in the Meiji Drama were not only technologically impressive, but we also being used for a genuinely interesting history lesson of sorts. Compared to the relatively boring Hall of Presidents animatrons in Disney World, these guys were pretty stellar. (Although still the awkward kind of jerky you expect from animatrons) Also, I'm fairly certain that the tiny holo-people in the reenactment exhibits were generated by similiar if not the same technology as the ghosts in Disney Land's Haunted Mansion. Again, these Japanese characters are being used for not solely entertainment, but education as well. One might even say that Japan not only mimicked the technology in a different way, but possibly even in a better way.

After the museum visit, Jill and I were pretty hungry, so we stopped at a ramen place near a park in the center of town for lunch. A nice lady from Hong Kong spoke English with us for a bit, and we were genuinely grateful for the chance to rest for a bit. Conveniently, the Saigo Takamori Statue was nearby, which I definitely had to take a picture of to send back to Tsutsumi-Sensei's class in Olympia. (Tsutsumi-Sensei had requested that I take some photos in Kagoshima since they're learning about the Meiji Restoration right now)

Bronze Statue in of Takamori Saigo, tragic, compassionate Hero.

Our next stop was "the cave where Saigo hid," (or so it was called on our map) which is the place where Saigo Takamori took his last stand at the end of the Satsuma Rebellion.

"The Cave where Saigo hid"

I won't give a full account of Saigo's story here, but essentially he was a prominent figure of the Satsuma clan who taught his pupils with the rules "Never lose, never lie, never bully." Young samurai were trained by other young samurai, since they had no school or formal teachers. The Meiji Restoration was a time of turmoil in Japan, since the Tokugawa government was being overthrown by people trying to return power to the Emperor of Japan. ("Restoration" in Japanese history refers to times where power that has been taken from the Imperial family is being restored) The Satsuma clan was on the side of the war that was fighting in favor of the imperial family, who were up against the Tokugawa Shogunate, who had been in power for over two centuries. Saigo was a compassionate man, even in victory, and although he had been exiled multiple times in his life for fear of his leading a rebellion, he allowed his enemies to live, saying that too much blood had already been spilled.

The sign outside of the cave. "My life is in your hands" refers to Saigo's reaction to his students' actions that led to the beginning of the last Satsuma Rebellion.

Later in his life, after Saigo has basically retired from the leadership scene, he was leading a school in Kagoshima for those without the means to travel to the best schools in the capital. (Or something like that) However, since the government was worried about Saigo raising another rebellion, they started to move all arms and munition formerly stored in Kagoshima to Kyoto, where they could keep an eye on it. Saigo's students, offended by this lack of trust in their mentor, attacked one of the munitions depots, which marked the beginning of the Seinan (?) Civil War, or the last Satsuma Rebellion. Unfortunately for Saigo, who didn't understand the actions of his students, his forces were outnumbered two-to-one, and had inferior weaponry as well. Despite all he had done for the restoration of the imperial family, the government ultimately destroyed Saigo, and he it still revered as a Hero even today.

Or... at least I think that's how it went. Okubo has his own story too, and he is nearly as popular since he was a close friend of Saigo's before they went different ways regarding the modernization of Japan.

After the cave, (which was a really quick visit, like, four minutes before the bus arrived again) we went to the Saigo Nanshu Cemetery, where the samurai who died during the Seinan Civil War are buried, including Saigo. (There is also another museum there, but we didn't have time to visit it as well.

Saigo Nanshu Cemtery, some of the samurai who are buried here were as young as fourteen.

The cemetery is on a large hill overlooking the Kagoshima bay, and you can clearly see the Sakurajima volcano from a little terrace near the gate. There is also a shrine near the cemetery, but we didn't purchase omikuji (fortunes) this time. It's a really inspiring place, and gave me a feeling of awe kind of similar to the way I felt at the Ama no Iwato cave-shrine in Takachiho, although this feeling was more of an appreciation of historical importance rather than an awe for the natural beauty at the cave.

The Tomb of Saigo Takamori

Our final stop was the Kagoshima City Aquarium, which was pretty much the most awesome aquarium I've ever been to. While the Seattle Aquarium will always hold a familiar place in my heart, this place was just really, really cool.

Kagoshima City Aquarium

Not only where the sea creatures we saw here new and exciting, but they aquarium also had a really conservation-y message. Every intro to each area reminded visitors that the environment that these creatures live in is shrinking each day, and that even the rich sea life near the geothermic vents of Sakurajima is at risk.

I'll warn you now that my pictures in the aquarium are a bit lacking, since my camera doesn't photograph moving things very well. Jillian's blog, however, has some better pictures, as well as a picture of a really moving poem at the end of the aquarium tour. (Jill's blog also has pictures of the baby sea turtles, which were my favorite. I took a picture of them too, but hers is infinitely better than mine.)

A big, scary Grouper

Aside from the huge variety of sea life, including, but not limited to, cuttlefish, octopi, tube worms, jellyfish, sea otters, whale sharks, and crabs, part of what made the aquarium so fun was the visitors. There were a ton of kids there, and they were all super excited to be there, too! It was really heartwarming to see all of the children so happy to see all of the seahorses and snails, and a particularly adorable moment happened when we saw this guy:

Oh my, it's a Clown Fish!

This group of little kids were chanting "Nemo, Nemo!" as their parents looked on. I haven't actually seen Finding Nemo before, but I hear it's really good. I'd always liked clown fish as a child because I thought it was really cool how they could live among sea anemones that would normally sting other fish.

Speaking of stinging, this guy is apparently pretty dangerous.

The aquarium, like the museum, also had many interactive stations, like the touch-tank, where kids could touch sea-stars and things, computer games, and a sea lab where a scientist was showing things like jellyfish polyps and shark egg sacs. In particular at the sea lab, I thought this was pretty funny:

I don't see the scientific significance of this, but this fella was in the sea lab anyway.

I keep referring to all of these creatures as "guys" and "fellas," but I honestly have no idea whether they're male or female. Interestingly, I took more pictures in the museum, while Jill took more pictures in the aquarium. I bet you can guess what our academic foci are!

There was also a dolphin show, but we couldn't stick around to see it.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit all of the museums in Kagoshima, although the Marchen Fairy Tale museum looked really cool. We also had the skip the art museum, and didn't get to take the ferry to Sakurajima either. Sakurajima is an island-like volcano in Kagoshima bay. It's really, really big, and still active! In Kagoshima, they actually have drills to train people what to do in the event of an eruption, similar to fire or earthquake drills in schools. Sakurajima also has a "magma onsen," that has water heated by the volcano itself!

Sakurajima Volcano, as seen from the Aquarium.

We took the express bus back to Miyazaki and had a food court dinner at Miyako city. (Chinese food for Jill, Okonomiyaki again for me.) After a long, long day, we took the train back to Kibana and finally came home to Shiva. (who was pretty pissed, but seemed to have missed us) Lucky for us, Jillian's friend Erina had fed Shiva while we were gone because she heard him meowing, so he was okay.

Overall, it was an amazing day trip! I'd be more than happy to visit Kagoshima again some day, and was glad to be able to help Tsutsumi-Sensei's class out by getting some visual references to help their study. Next week I'm hoping to travel around other parts of Kyushu, and if things work out, I might be going all on my own. I'm nervous, but also excited!

And... yeah! That's all I have to say about Kagoshima for now! Until next time!