Actually, I’m feeling better about the hotel now. It’s kind of run down and in the middle of nowhere but really I need to do more research before I show up places. It makes for more adventure, sometimes more than I need. This hotel is an old school onsen resort, one that’s kind of on its way down, but it’s fine and it wasn’t expensive. If you get the right train it’s less than an hour and a half from Kagoshima-chuo station and most of the staff were a crack-up. I got lost several times and they all said something like, “This place isn’t really that convenient.” That’s not something I’d expect to hear from Japanese people. I guess that’s why I like Kagoshima so much.
And the food was great. I’m not sure if this breakfast was better or if the APA Hotel breakfast was better, but like the guy on the trolley today told me, “The food in Kagoshima is great.”
Jet lag has really hit. After an awful night of waking up over and over, I finally was dead asleep when the alarm went off. I dragged myself up and I was going to hit the onsen in the morning but I checked my email, like a dummy, and I missed my chance. But I ate too much again which was a good thing later on because finding lunch turned out to be an ordeal.
I got on the train back to Kagoshima-chuo and I was surprised at how quickly we got to the city and how crowded the train got.
Kagoshima-chuo station was packed (it is a national holiday today) and the tourist information bureau had a sign that said, “Expect the tour buses to be sold out because a cruise ship arrived today.” I talked to several couples from the ship because, as my sister says, I’m one of those old guys who talks to everyone. There are also lots of foreigners in Kagoshima who look like they live here and I want to join them. It is a lot warmer than I like but I can deal with that. I bet it would be much easier than slipping on ice.
In any case, I was confused by the lack of streetcars and I was told that today is the biggest festival in Kagoshima. Several main roads were closed. I took a taxi rather than trying to figure out which re-routed bus would get me closest to the hotel. I left my bag and this is what it looked like outside the front door of the hotel:
It’s a wide street and the grass-covered median is actually the trolley tracks between the two lanes. The dancers went down one side and up the other. The crowds got much worse after I crossed the street. They’d stop the dancing every few songs to let people cross.
At some point I talked to a local Brit and he said there was a Tokyo Disneyland parade coming which was the big attraction. I got as close as I could and waited in the heat.
There were a bunch of gradeschool marching bands playing quite well along with a couple of other marching bands and we waited. And then I saw it, Mickey and Minnie on the first bus, Donald and Daisy on the second. You can’t see them but Goofy and Pluto were on the back of the first bus and Chip & Dale were on the back of the second.
At this point I realized how little I cared about Mickey and let a mom stand in the great spot I found. I still got to see everything. Everyone else seemed to be taking a video and were much more excited about this than I was.
And then I wandered through the crowds to try to find some lunch. The lines were horrible and all the streets away from the festival were packed.
I saw multiple ambulances called and I wonder if it wasn’t because of a section of the festival called “Shochu Street.” An older gentleman excitedly told me it was the first time they’ve held it in 4 years. Later when I was talking to a cruise couple from LA when we saw an older gentleman do a faceplant directly into a building. He finally got up and was being belligerent with his wife. They refused help from passers-by.
About 1:30 pm I headed back towards the hotel and got a greasy bag containing yakitori and grilled pork sticks. It was great and I can say I had the festival experience without standing in line. It was at the edge of the festivities and the crowds there had died down.
One of the most popular things today looked like a whole potato spiral cut, stuck onto a 2-foot stick, and I think fried. I didn’t get a picture, but the lines were long for those wherever they were located.
After that I checked into my hotel and sat inside for about an hour before I headed out for coffee. This shop was on the “People of Kagoshima” YouTube channel and the owner won a prize for being one of the best baristas in the world. He wasn’t there, but the coffee was very good.
Then I wandered around. Come to think of it, this is when I saw the drunk guy faceplant into the building. I also saw a “Furuits Parlour”.
The rest of the day didn’t get many pictures. I went to several different Daiso stores (¥100 shops) and bought some dumb things I was excited to get like a jar opener (¥100!) and a short two-prong power cord (OMG, ¥300). They didn’t take Suica but they did take my AMEX on my iPhone.
The third Daiso was back at Kagoshima-chuo station, about a mile away. On the way I went by the only gasoline station I’ve been to in Kagoshima where I refueled a rental car in 2019. The cab drove me by it earlier so I figured I was destined to take a picture of it.
On the way back to the hotel I got on the streetcar and asked a guy what the next station was (the announcement was severely muffled) and he got two other people involved. Everyone is so helpful down here. He’s from Kagoshima, but lives in Osaka right now, He’s the guy who said the food down here is great and I agree! And the size of the portions is big even by US standards. I had a hard time finishing my dinner of tonkatsu.
And I thought I’d get another early night but yeesh, I had a heck of a time trying to use the smartEX app to buy a bullet train ticket. I hope it worked. We’ll see tomorrow morning.