Our last full day in Japan! We decided to make the most of our JR Pass and head from Fukuoka right down to the bottom of Kyushu to visit Kagoshima. Kagoshima is known as a sea side city which is overlooked by Japan’s most active volcano Sakurajima. On the bullet train we flew through the area. It is about 281 km between the two places and on the bullet train we arrived in 1 hour 15 minutes. Bullet trains are very cool but also if you don’t have a JR pass it is very expensive (About $140 AUD one way). When we arrived we jumped on a hop on and hop off bus to our first destination. Once there we got distracted by a cute starbucks and you could even see Sakurajime (the volcano) from the window.
Our first stop was to a unesco world heritage site which was Sengan-en and the Shoko Shuseikan Museum. It is part of UNESCO for Japan’s insustrial revolution where Shimadzu Nariakira, lord of Satsuma, started a series of projects to bring modern industrial technology to Japan. Japan was the only country in Asia to be a part of the industrial revolution. This site is home to the factories and The lord of Satsuma’s house and gardens.
We stopped first at the glass factory Satsuma Kiriko Cut Glass it is an old form of glassmaking that is still all completely done by hand. We were lucky enough to see them working as they have the factory open for viewing. The glass works are so expensive but watching them cut it I can see why.
We continued to Sengan-an Garden. We got to see the UNESCO certicificate and then checked out some of the gardens. It was nice but not really my thing. We tried Jambo Mochi which is famous in this area. Each one has 2 sticks in it as apparently they represnt the 2 samurai swords. Either way there were pretty good.
It was then back on the bus to head to the ferry terminal to head over to Sakurajima. Sakurajima is one of Japan’s most active volcanoes, spewing smoke or ash on an almost daily basis. Sakurajima is also one of the world’s great active volcanoes at 1,117 meters tall and 50km around. It amazes me that people happil live so close to this volcano. There is seriously Ash falling down daily and it erupts very often (not huge ones, but it can spit out rocks.) We took the ferry over to check out this volcano and decided to do what the locals do which is have a bowl of the famous Udon on the 15 minute ferry ride across. It was amazing.
When we arrived we went to the Visitor Center where they has a English speaker working who was literally the most unhelpful person I have met on this whole trip. She half assed explained the bus route to the top of the volcano, but didnt explain how to pay, or if it would come back to here or even the fact that there was only 1 other bus after this one. I spent most of the bus ride trying to google these answers and in the end we made it up to the observatory got to see the view and then half make it back to the Visitor Center. We had to walk a bit as apaprently we would have had to pay a 3rd time to go one more stop… Grrr. Either way the view was stunning!
We then headed to the foot onsen with a view of Sakurajima. The water was hot and very sulfury, just what my feet needed. It was then back on the ferry, to the bus, to the bullet train! We came back to the hotel to do the boring parts of travel- washing and packing!
It has been a great but short trip to Kyushu! I want to come back and see more.