To the Yoron Island
October 16, 2011
After enjoying the famous local food in Kagoshima, such as tonkatsu or ramen made with kurobuta (black pork), we took a bus from Kagoshima Central Station to Kagoshima Shinko port.
The ferry that goes to Okinawa via Yoron Island leaves Kagoshima Shinko at 18pm.
This ferry stops at Amami Oshima, Tokunoshima, and some other small islands, too. It took 19 hours, and the fare was 13,400JPY per person, one way. It was more expensive than Tokyo-Tokushima, it took 1 hour more, and it was not even a private cabin or bunk bed.
The seat number was given. Each of the thin matresses had a pillow and a blanket on top of it, and it was the "seat." There were at least 30 sets in one room. There was a TV in the middle, and had 2 doors.
Like in Peace Boat, the room temperature was set low in order to avoid sea sickness, and it was cold for me.
There was a shower room but I didn't use it. It also had a cafeteria and a kiosk, but the opening hours are quite limited.
By the time the ferry arrived at Yoron, which was 13:10, the number of the passengers was less than half.
The frined couple was there to pick us up. The color of ocean was almost green, and everything was very different from the main island of Japan.
We went to the nearby beach everyday, and always had breakfast in the front terrace of the house we stayed.
Everything was slow and relaxed, and we had a very good time.
Going home
October 22, 2011
On the way home, we took the same ferry to go back to Kagoshima city, spent a night there, and then flew to Tokyo.
We had a day in Kagoshima city, and so went to the history museum called kagoshima Museum of Meiji Restoration, which we found by coincidence.
This futuristic museum uses robots instead of humans for the short plays. It belongs to the Kagoshima Conventions and Visitors Bureau, so the budget of construction, 3 billion yen according to the website, must have come from tax and maybe donations. The fare was almost nothing. Public projects are always crazy in this country.
The most meaningful exhibition in this museum for me was the original version of the national anthem. It was made by a foreigner and it sounds very western. The Japanese government officials back then arranged the molody into Japanese style and combined a Japanese poem to it as lyrics. That is how the current national anthem was born.
I planned this trip to know deeper about my country, and the objective was achieved, I guess.
In the next morning, when the airplane took off, Sakurajima island, the active volcano, could be seen from the windows. We went back the distance which took us 5 days, in 3 hours.