Gardens and Views.

01.05.2019

Next day we began by heading to the Museum of the Meiji Restoration, not to visit the museum, but to buy a two day travel pass. This covered buses and trams in Kagoshima, plus the ferry to Sakarujima, plus a cruise around part of Sakarujima.

Although we did not visit the museum, I did read up a little bit on the Meiji Restoration, as Kagoshima, then known as Satsuma, played an important role in it. The Meiji Restoration ended the Tokugawa shogunate, a period of military rule which had lasted from 1603 to 1867, and placed the emperor back in power. The Meiji Restoration led to an opening up of Japan to the outside world and a rapid period of economic and industrial development. Saigō Takamori, a native of the Kagoshima area, helped bring about the restoration, though later he led a rebellion against it. Many of Kagoshima's sights are associated with him.

Around the museum there were many beautiful plants, so I took lots of photos before we headed off for the day's sightseeing.

Plum Blossom.

Cherry Blossom.

Colourful Trees.

The Musem of Meiji restoration

Cherry trees by the river.

View of a bridge.

We took the city view sightseeing bus to Shiroyama Park. Shiroyama means "castle mountain" in Japanese and this park used to be the site of a hill-top castle. The hill is 107 metres high. This park has a viewing area known as the Shiroyama Observatory with lovely views over Kagoshima, Kagoshima Bay and Sakurajima. This park was also the site of the final battle of the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. Saigo Takamori made his last stand at Saigo Cave, within the present day park.

Looking towards the volcano.

Shiroyama Park.

We then got back on the city view bus and headed to Sengan-en Gardens. It costs 1000 yen to go in. Senganen dates from 1658 and was created by the wealthy Shimazu Clan. The Shimazu ruled the Kagoshima area for almost 700 years until the end of the feudal age in 1868. Just outside the gardens is Japan's first western style factory and a shrine.

The Iso Residence within Senganen was the main residence of the Shimazu family, It can only be seen on a guided tours, and costs an additional 300 yen. The Shuseikan Industrial Complex was constructed on the Senganen grounds to produce iron for shipbuilding and casting cannons. The industrial development of Japan started here. Another sight near here is Ijinkan. This was a residence for foreign engineers who helped build a textile mill in the area. We did not visit all these sights; we just visited the gardens. The gardens have lovely views over the bay and towards Sakurajima Volcano. We saw the remains of a former industrial furnace, several shrines, the Iso Residence from the outside and an amazingly beautiful pond surrounded by irises. At one point we wanted to take a selfie of both of us with the volcano and discovered we'd lost our selfie stick. I retraced our steps quite a long way and was just about to give up when I saw something glinting from inside a bush and lo and behold it was our selfie stick. Of course we had to take some pictures to celebrate its return.

Remains of the Furnace.

The Iso Residence.

Looking towards Sakurajima.

The Iso Residence.

Irises.

Ponds.

Azaleas.

Sakurajima.

Bamboo Grove.

Trying out his swordsmanship.

Pleased to have our selfie stick back.

Irises.

Me with a volcano.

Japan's First Factory.

Later we explored the town centre. Kagoshima is a pleasant enough town. There are a lot of monuments which are very important in Japanese history but not so impressive if, like me, you don't know that much about Japanese history. Most of Kagoshima is fairly modern as it was flattened by bombs during World War 11. We saw a statue of Saigo Takamori, and one of Komatsu Tatewaki, a government official, who served the Shimazu family during the Meiji Period and one of Shinran Shonin, a rebel monk who founded a new school of Buddhism. Near the statue of Saigo Takamori is Kagoshima Museum of Art and near the museum is the castle. All that remains of the castle are its walls and moat. There is a modern museum inside the walls, but it was all closed for restoration when we visited and there were cranes and bulldozers everywhere. We noticed there were little statues showing important events from Kagoshima's history all over the city. Peter liked posing with these.

Statue of Saigo Takamori.

Statue of Shinran Shonin.

Statue of Komatsu Tatewaki.

Museum of Art.

Castle Walls.

Monument to the loyal retainers.

Little statues showing events from history.

Eventually after exploring the centre, we reached Temonkan an area with lots of shops and restaurants. We ate in a very good and very cheap Japanese restaurant. It was just twenty yen for draft sapporo beer. We had a large plate of gioza and pork ramen, too.

Temonkan.