trip to kagoshima – part 1
November 1, 2007 Leave a comment
Last week, on the 27~28th oct , i got the chance to do the thing that i like the most, TRAVEL!!it was the annual trip for oversea students organised by the college to let us enjoy n experience Japan(as they wrote it in the purpose of activity column in the proposal letter).This year`s destination would be KAGOSHIMA, Kyushu, Japan.
At first, we proposed to go outside Kyushu but because of limited budget and time, the college decided that its gonna be kagoshima this year.Kagoshima is situated in the south of Kyushu Island, about 200km from my college in Kurume.It took us about 3hours to get there.
The school rented a 10-seat van for us and our hostel`s staff act as our driver.There were all 8 of us in this trip.5 students which all came from different countries-srilanka,morocco,malaysia,mongolia n laos, 2 teachers n the pakcik hostel.
1st day-27oct-830am-we gather in front of the college`s office n off we go!
-our ride-
After about 45 min on the highway, we stopped for about 10 min here to find something for breakfast.
At first i couldn`t find anything that i can eat(common problem for muslims in japan) but as i was just about to give up, i noticed there were onigiri`s near the entrance door.And that onigiri became my santapan that morning.
– enjoying a tuna mayonnaise onigiri(once hated food, now kind of like it)-
Then we continued our journey to kagoshima, non-stop(juz stopped once for a quick lunch) staright to kagoshima.The scenery along the way were magnificient!These are just some of them.
Our first stop on our place to visit list was a memorial park(sorry i forgot the name) dedicated for the soldiers who died during the, world war 2 if i’m not mistaken.These soldiers would fly a fighter plane and crash themselves into the enemy`s ship, plane, buildings etc.Yup, they die for certain.This memorial park was built on the site of the army`s air base where those willing-to-die soldiers departed for their mission.
-who would expect that even botak trees can make a place looks beautiful?-
-one of the fighter plane once used during the war-
-a 40 years old statue-
-people put candles in those pillars as symbol of praying for peace and respect for the soldiers who died-
-another type of the fighter planes-
After spending about an hour there, we then proceed to our next stop, the Samurai Garden in Chiran Town, not far from the memorial park.Chiran was a kamikaze base during the Second World War.This town includes a lane lined by residences of warriors who lived in the Edo period (17th through mid-19th centuries). The houses, together with the gardens have been well-preserved by the local authority.The size of the garden in each house determine their wealth and power.
-in one of the gardens-
Actually this would be our last destination for the day day but seems that we finished wondering around the garden earlier than we expected, we decided to go to have the famous sand spa in Ibusuki, about an hour journey from here.I couldn`t wait to get there because im very eager to know what is a sand spa.My teacher said that it is just the same like the hot spring, but what make it interesting is that sand is used instead of water.And you dont have to take off your clothes.(info:when japanese go to hotsprings, they take off all their clothes and get into the water together!)
O our way to the sand spa, we dropped by in a place near Lake Ikeda, the biggest lake in Kyushu Island.We dropped by just to some eels which is famous here.These eels are not the same like the ones in our sawah padi in Malaysia.According to the pakcik there, these eels have longer life than the common eels that we see in pasar, market etc.Their life span is as same as human,about 70 years.And there are very big!They can grow up to 1.8 metres long, and 60cm wide.That`s as big as human!
-itsays : world number one eels-
-its sleeping.this one is still a child, about 6 years old of age-
And then, here we are, at the sand spa place.
-before getting into the sand-
-at first it felt warm and nice, after about 10min, it became hot!-
-after having sand spa- After enjoying our time at the sand spa, we then went to a restaurant nearby to fill our hungry stomach.It had been 8 hours since we had our lunch, so everyone was starving.All the others were eager to try the Kurobuta(black pork,the most expensive pork meat in japan), a famous dish here.They had been talking about it even before the trip.I, of course didn’t ate that.I settled with a set of tempura with rice.nyum2!
-dinner in a japanese style room-
Eating at the restaurant was our last activity for that day.We then head to our place to stay for the night, Urbic Hotel, situated in Kagoshima city centre.We arrived at about 9.30pm and checked in straight away.At first i thought that we were going to share rooms, maybe about 2 or 3 persons a room as there are 8 of us.But when told that there would be a room for each of us, I was just like, wow!That was the first time in my life not having to share room during a school trip!And the room was excellent!With large bed for a person, a flat screen tv, internet connection, and a bathroom with huge bathtub.Oh, couldn’t wait to lay myself on the bed!
But I didnt straight went to bed.After I get to my room and put my stuff, I went out again to and join my other 4 friends as we had planned to take a walk around Kagoshima city.So, we went out wondering around without any destination or intention cause the shops were already closed.Even if you see that shops or shopping plazas are closed in japan, that doesnt mean that the japanese are already at home, resting or doing something else.If you go much deeper inside small streets behind buildings, you
‘ll find places which are very much lively and happening.Here we can see the japanese enjoying themselves drinking, eating,playing games etc.And there are so many places like what they call ‘love hotel’.When I saw this, I can say that japanese are more like americans.That is totally different from my perception about japanese people before.But of course you wont see families coming to this kind of place.Walking around this kind of place sounds scary, cause anyone would imagine that there would be gangsters, bandits, but actually its not that scary i can tell you.There are policemen in full uniforms wondering around here every single time, which shocked me.That really was a new experience for me.We took quite a long time wondering around the city, and we went back to the hotel at around 1am.Exhausted after a tiring day, I get to my room, cleaned myself a little bit and went to bed looking forward for the next day.To be continued…..
azekm 
