In Japan, this is Golden Week…one of the most celebrated weeks of the year as it includes 4 National Holidays starting today with Showa Day, followed by Constitution Day (May 3), Greenery Day (May 4) culminating on May 5 with Children’s Day. Showa Day honours the birthday of Emperor Showa (Hirohito) who reigned from 1926-1969. It is traditional for Japanese families to leave their lives in the city and reunite with their families somewhere more peaceful. As well, people use this day to reflect on and acknowledge the tumultuous events of Hirohito’s rule, with the goal of peace, unity and healing.
Many businesses in Japan close down for Golden Week to give their employees time off to enjoy these special days. As you can imagine, this could create complications for travellers needing accommodation and transportation.
Our original plan would have put us on the Islands off the west coast of Kyushu, living a carefree existence without needing to rely on hotels - camping and enjoying the beautiful nature and sand beaches. We will still do that, but the complications we have encountered with our trikes have set us back a week.
The lobbies in many of the hotels are very grand, and this is no exception. This photo shows about half of it. There is much seating, a grand piano playing music all day and interesting art.
We really liked a special art installation in the lobby of work by an Indigenous artist of the Ainu people from Hokkaido. Sapporo on Hokkaido and Kagoshima on Kyushu are twinned cities.
An Ainu elder’s robe was a gift from the city of Sapporo in Hokkaido.
We are in the area of Kagoshima called Tenmonkan and it is typified by narrow streets filled with bars, cafes, restaurants, Pachinko, shopping and nightlife. It is fun to explore. We like the metal decorative banners at street corners to identify that secti9n.
This store was a surprise as we felt a bit like we were shopping at home. Many western products we enjoy like spaghetti fixings, peanut butter, muesli etc of brands from home. We were glad to find a natural muesli for our breakfast as the Japanese granola we have been eating is a bit sweet for us.
And this brings us back to today.Heavy rain is predicted for tomorrow and we just aren’t in the mood to deal with that along with trike issues.L We spent much time last night and this morning pouring over possibilities for a place to stay, here in Kagoshima or on the route to the west coast. Availability was slim and if it was, the prices were insanely high. Hotel Lexton kindly offered to let us stay in the same room for a very reasonable price even though they were full except for perhaps the room we are in. We are happy to stay in Kagoshima another day. We have a room which is very comfortable. We have time to wander the streets of Kagoshima for another glimpse into another day in the life of Japan, do some research and stay dry if we can.Barry tried his trike this morning and for a brief time it worked. On his ride he got to see some of the celebrations that were happening in our neighbourhood to celebrate Showa Day.Yoshi has been getting tips from Shimano and relaying them to us. We are hoping that before we leave tomorrow, he will have a functioning e-trike. If not, we will divide and conquer….meaning that he will take the lighter load and since I have a motor, I will take the heavier panniers. we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Entertainment for the children in a park for Showa Day.
This was fun to walk. Essentially these were like bumper cars on the water. Sadly the “cars” were too small for Barry as he would have loved participating in this.
This little guy in the hard hat was so excited when he successfully scooped up balls in the excavator and put them in the bin. Cheers and hugs all around.
Boy, these woman are fast. They would put a pancake like batter into the individual tins, top it up with the mystery ingredient and when ready they would flip them and cook the other side.
The second one was equally delicious. An older man had been watching us and he suddenly came back and said “honey” and flapped his arms like a honey bee. So now we know…beans with honey. We all laughed at his antics miming a bee.
Oh yes, it’s still raining, so we’ll cross the street to another covered walking area. But first to the Drug Store (the colourful shop on the right) across the road to try to get epsom salts for Barry’s feet and his back. Something got lost in translation as our translator device wasn’t helping.
Pachinko is alive and well. The government was concerned about gambling addiction and do not allow any cash winnings. You get to keep the balls but no cash. People still love playing this…but the noise is deafening.
Charmaine RuppoltInteresting that the government was concerned about the gambling addiction and you don't keep any cash winnings! They ought to do this in the U.S. perhaps, as I think there are many who have this problem... Reply to this comment 9 months ago
After going back to the hotel and getting dry, we couldn’t resist going back to the Ramen place we so enjoyed last night. Due to the rain it was easier to get in quickly. One of the servers saw us and came up and gave me a welcome back hug and some of the cooks acknowledged our return. I guess it is not hard to notice us as we “stick out like a sore thumb”!
Barry tried a different Ramen tonight with a rich brown broth and I got the same smaller bowl of ramen and tried their fresh gyoza…yum.
We have both been struck by how different and delicious the Ramen is here in Kagoshima, and there is a reason for that. We have read that this off the radar ramen place is one of the top Ramen cafes in the area, beloved by locals. Also the broth is known to be made differently in Kagoshima than other parts of Japan with the bones of pork, chickens and seafood including sardines and anchovies.
Barry’s ramen tonight was very different than last night’s choice…equally delicious.
