the tall blond guy goes to japan

Bigger than advertised

Kagoshima

The reason why I thought Nishi-Kagoshima was in the middle of nowhere is that the brand-new station is in the middle of a big construction zone. Just around the corner is the central shopping district. Oops.

Have I shown you the volcano before? It's really pretty, for something that threatens to wipe everyone out within a few miles' radius.

Oooooh, pretty hill.

People here really seem into the whole volcano thing... I think it makes them feel invinsible and all-powerful.

The other thing they're really into is the Meigi Restoration and that Saigo guy. They have a whole museum on the Meigi Restoration- brand-new, like the aquarium. Like all touristy-attractions, it must have a show, and this one was pretty neato. I couldn't understand what was going on, but Saigo-san had a big role in it. There was a small model of Kagoshima about 150 years ago, and lots of animatronics. I thought I was in Disneyland for a moment there, except that all the animatronics were of old Japanese people dressed up as European princes. Seems Saigo-san had a real thing for the Dutch. Orders were given to fire on any foreign vessels except for the Chinese and the Dutch. Teachers from the Netherlands were sent to Satsuma (now known as Kagoshima) to teach the young Samurai the ways of the western world.

The rest of the museum tells of how Satsuma was the most progressive of all the Japanese han (kind of like a province or state). They were the first to build western-style factories, the first to have a morse-code telegraph system, and they were very proud of their faboo glassware.

Oooooh, pretty glassware.

Kagoshima's a fine, fine town to walk around in- there's lots to see and do, the signs are everywhere, and it's small enough that if you get lost, it's easy to get un-lost again. They also have two streetcar lines- #1 and #2- that both start from Kagoshima JR station. Thankfully, they're bilingual. Actually, most of the rail transport around Japan seems to be at least a bit bilingual. Oh- and the electronic signs at big JR stations switch between Japanese and English after about 10 seconds. If you don't understand the sign, just hang around a wait a bit, it will probably turn into English.