Kagoshima

Kagoshima is almost at the southern end of the island of Kyushu. Further south are minor islands, including Okinawa.

One of the spectacles of Kagoshima is the offshore volcano of Sakurajima. It is an active volcano which spews ash now and then, and more seriously, will have a major eruption sooner or later. So it's under constant watch, and people are on alert.

People do live on the island. It can be visited by ferry. However today my destination was less exciting. It was Sengan-en, a garden which was once the residence of the Shimadzu clan.

The reception site has displays explaining the history of early industrialisation and the part played by this site. It's UNESCO listed.

This looks like just a plain platform.

But it is in fact the site of a reverberatory furnace.

The head of the Shimadzu clan, seeing western steamships, foresaw that iron and steel technology was needed for national defense, so he established a factory here in 1851. By trial and error, they managed to build a steamship by 1855.

An old entrance.

The gardens.

The old residence is behind the trees.

Nicely landscaped.

At the eastern end of the site is this relic of a power station. Use was made of abundant flowing water from the hills behind the property.

Moving inland I took this shady path.

This stream runs through it.

There is a small restaurant and a souvenir shop.

It was too early for lunch and I'm not a souvenir collector but I did succumb to a soft-serve ice-cream with a local flavour, I think of a native fruit.

Back at the station shopping centre I found a shop that specialised on one kind of ramen and advertised their history so I figured it had to be special. It wasn't too bad, even though it had the cloudy type of broth created by including the fat from the pork, whereas I prefer the clear broth varieties.

I probably rested in the afternoon to spur adaptation to the time zone. Besides, this far south in Japan, days are warm even in October.

In the evening I decided to have a look at Tenmonkan, a shopping area to the north of the station. The name means (Sky) Observatory in Japanese but also has a cognate in Chinese. This explains the star map on the floor.

Part of the reason I did not hesitate to go there was because I had a day ticket good for all trams which I had used to reach Sengan-en, so the trip was already paid for.

As you can see it comprises undercover shopping galleries.

It actually stretches from both sides of the main road which has the tramway in the median.

I think this was a tea shop.

Japanese shops are very colourful.

I think this shop sold goods of the province.

As it was around dinner time, I looked for a suitable eatery, but didn't find one to my liking. I ended up buying a bento box from the supermarket you saw earlier. I found those boxes a cheap and hassle-free way to have a meal.