Days 15-18; November 1-4: Kagoshima

This weekend we went to Kagoshima, a city on Kyushu Island, for a conference I was scheduled to speak at.

Red dot is Osaka, Green dot is Kagoshima

We flew out on Saturday afternoon from Osaka International, landed in Kagoshima, and had an hour plus bus ride to get to our modern, very-Japanese hotel (the Sun Royal).





A grad student of one of Y.'s colleagues met us at the airport and helped us get there. He was a blast, enjoyed practicing his English, and the boys had a lot of fun with him:

Both our hotel room and the hot baths on the top floor had great views of the Sakurajima Volcano, which is still active and was smoking during our stay. The cloudy weather didn't make for great pictures, but it was still a very nice view.

Big time fun: radio and light controls within reach!

Highlight of the hotel, for Grandpa Tom: A big hornshoe!

The conference was Sunday, and was probably one of the largest audiences I've spoken in front of, even if most of the couple hundred attendees didn't speak English. I gave my talk, then a translator went through my notes and summarized for everyone what I had said. Right before the talk, we were in the dressing room (literally--the symposium was in a theater) and the head organizer of the conference came in to wish us "a successful talk." It's fun to meet important people and have your only responsibility be to bow a lot. It was also the best name of a hall I've ever spoken in: the Prefecture Citizens' Hall. How grand! So much better than "Large Hall 1a" or whatever rooms our meetings are usually held in.

There was a nice dinner party following the conference, where I met the organizers and heads of the association. Again, my instructions were to bow a lot. They also served 50 different varieties of shochu, a liquor made from sweet potatoes that is a specialty of the region. With such a line-up, I was expecting to see some infamous Japanese drunken antics, but the party ended pretty early and without incident.

While I was at the conference, Kate and the boys walked around Kagoshima, and stopped at the art museum there as well:



At one point during the party, Y. was talking (in Japanese, of course) with her friend at University of Tokyo, and suddenly she turned to me and said, "so you can give a talk at the university in Tokyo, yes?" So I guess I'm giving a talk there when we go visit (last weekend of November). A lot of things have come about in this way, and I guess the only thing a person can do, aside from get flustered and not enjoy anything, is to go along with it and see what happens. (update: I just got a phone call from Y. today and found out I'm having lunch with the president of the University next weekend! My instructions this time were to "be very formal," though I'm sure that includes at least some bowing.)

That was pretty much what happened Monday and Tuesday. We left the Sun Royal hotel on Monday, entirely under Y.'s direction, and honestly without any idea where we were headed or what we were doing. The original plan was to take a bus to our next location, a small hotel with outdoor hot springs baths. Instead, when we met at the designated time, Y. informed us that she had negotiated a cab ride earlier in the day so that the boys didn't have to be on a bus (Archer was still sick with a runny nose). When we got in the taxi, we found ourselves being driven onto a ferry, which we took to the volcano and drove around that area for a while.

We then stopped at Kirishima-Jingu, which legend says is the birthplace of Japan. In fact, legend has the birthplace of Japan at this very rock:

It's also said that the gods (or just one--it was unclear) come down through this very tree:

Unfortunately, this happens only once every 20 years, so we weren't lucky enough to see anything. Just looked like a boring old tree to us.

But the building and surrounding were really very lovely. It has features of both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, as the two religions often have melded together in Japan, and this is one of those instances.



As at most shrines and temples, you can get your fortune (for a fee, of course). After reading it, and especially if it's a bad fortune, people tie them to the fence leading up to the shrine. One certainly doesn't want to bring bad fortunes back into the home:

Kirishima means "mist islands," because (right!) of the heavy mist in the area. When thick, only the hilltops poke through, giving the illusion of islands in the sea. (Kirishima was also the name of one of the battleships part of the attack on Pearl Harbor shhhhh don't mention you're American around the old Japanese guy!)

After more scenic driving, we ended up at the ryokan where we were staying, ryokojin sanso.



We were given our yukata, which we wore to the outdoor hot spring bath. The volcanic activity of Japan produces a lot of hot springs (onsen), and ryokan are often built around these areas.

Hot springs. As in, really hot.

The other highlight was the food. Our first night we had what will probably go down as one of the best dinners ever, if only for the sashimi.

Part of the meal is the presentation of the food and the aesthetic enjoyment that goes along with it.

We had the meat (as opposed to seafood) dinner, but it of course included plenty of seafood as well. This area was also known for its pork products, so several were featured. The top row, going from left to right: Miso soup for cooking pork and vegetables; a really, incredibly tasty pork dish; a hot plate (actually a piece of lava rock from Sakurajima volcano on top of a sterno) for cooking beef and vegetables.

In the background you can see the pork and veggies that were cooked in the soup. In the circle dish up front, there was the best raw fish we've ever tasted. The shrimp was soft and buttery. (Sushi shrimp tends to be rubbery and tasteless.) The tuna was unbelievable. Really, the whole thing was worth it for the four or so pieces of fish in that plate. Next to it is a plum liquor.

On the left is seaweed and fish eggs. The woman serving was quick to point out that the fish laid the eggs in the seaweed themselves, and it was not placed there artificially. Which is good, because nothing ruins a dish like the interference of human hands in nature's reproductive process.

Our breakfast was similarly involved, if slightly less tasty. It's just hard to get excited about salad and half-cooked egg in soy sauce that early in the morning. The fish was delicious, though--it was dried for a day and then cooked very simply on the table.


A few final pictures of the views from the ryoken before we left: