Blogs from Kagoshima, Kagoshima, Japan, Asia

Tour Day 122, Cruise Day 20 – Day at Sea Tour Day 123, Cruise Day 21 – Shore Excursion: Chiran Samurai Houses & Peace Museum – Kagoshima, Japan Chiran, just nineteen miles south of Kagoshima, is sometimes called Little Kyoto because of the many Samurai residences preserved here. The houses and their beautiful gardens are approximately 250 years old. The gates to the residences, moss-covered stone walls, hedges and black tile roofs evoke the Edo period. The samurais’ descendants still use several of the residences. View them from the outside. Tour the Chiran Peace Museum, which explores the background of Japan’s kamikaze pilots. They trained nearby before embarking on suicide missions against Allied sea vessels. The museum includes photos and final letters of the young pilots, many of whom were teenagers, and it makes a plea ... read more

SC writes: Yesterday we blasted south via Shinkansen to “sunny” Kagoshima only to find it raining. Apparently it has been very wet down here with floods and all sorts...but we just got a bit damp. Having checked into our latest hotel (more room but no Onsen, shuttle bus or free coffee), we set off with borrowed unbrellas to explore, mainly in the sheltered arcades of the Tenmonkan downtown area. They clearly get a lot of wet weather here - there are even “free to borrow” umbrellas on the Trams. We researched options and made plans for the next two days. Tomorrow we’re off on another side trip by train but today we got a one day bus and tram pass and used that to get around. Mercifully the rain held off and we able to get ... read more

Wednesday, 21st October 2015 I have a full day in Kagoshima today to explore the city proper. With sights scattered along the major public transportation points, this was an easy journey that allowed plenty of time for me to reflect in between places of interest. Starting from the JR Kagoshima Station, my first stop for the day was a visit to the Museum of the Meiji Restoration. Located along the Kotsuki River, this was a mere 5 minutes from where I started. Other noteworthy sites around the vicinity included the birthplace of Saigo Takamori as well as a replica of the Samurai House which was a common sight during the pre-Meiji Restoration era. After immersing myself on some Japanese history, I took to the Shiroyama Observatory which commanded a great view of downtown Kagoshima and Sakurajima ... read more

A one hour drive to Chiran to see the well-preserved residences of Samurai warriors. The houses are occupied and several of the owners allow garden visits. One lady did let us photograph her living room from outside. Another resident served us green tea in her garden. A couple of miles down the road we visited the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots. A very sobering experience and a beautiful tribute to brave young men.... read more

JAPAN In order to try to catch up with the blog, this is the itinerary for Japan, we are going to put a few more pics on 15th March - Kagoshima 17th March – Yokohama 19th March – Kobe 21st March – Nagasaki All the ports of call into Japan were maiden, that is, the Queen Elizabeth had not visited before. Our overall impression of Japan was how clean the place was, (they don’t have rubbish bins on the street for instance). The people were so friendly and helpful, they have little English and there are not many European signs. However the guides were great and sometimes very amusing, having not been to Europe to study English, their interpretations were ‘quaint’ to say the least. We did a tour at each port of call which with ... read more