Early October Adventure--Days 2 and 3

Kagoshima Day 2.

All rested and ready to go. That blue sign in the back is the hotel where we stayed.

The little local train we boarded to Ibusuki. Hot sand baths here we come!!

Well we made it...

...and the place was a ghost town. Even the pachinko palor on the main street was closed. What?

But we did find a cute little restaurant for lunch. The food was delicious. I can't remember what I had exactly, but it was sort of like fajitas--a hot plate with some veggies and seafood on it. No tortillas though. I did get some red miso soup and a beautiful little plate of seasonal fruit for dessert.

How Japanese!

It turns out everyone was hiding out at the sand baths. I was expecting a cabana on the beach that handed out yukata and maybe a screen to change behind, but no, it was a big two story building with a lobby and gift shop, locker rooms and onsen. While we waited to pay, we checked out the rules/instructions, conveniently written in Japanese and English. The red part warns you not to stay too long in the hot sand. Rule #2 tells you under no circumstances should you wear your underwear under your yukata.

Here's where everyone is!! And with good reason.

After waiting in line, you are lead to a shallow pit, each on holds about 8 people, lined up head to toe. People are very relaxed, and the only way you can be sure they aren't dead is the sweat on their brows. You lay down in your own little trough, and the sand shoveler comes by and very professionally shovels sand on top of you, all the way up to your neck. When I say very professionally, I mean it. There was not a grain of sand past my neck...eyes and mouth blissfully sand free!

The recommended time limit is 10 mins. We stayed burried for about 15, then a few more while the obliging employee took our photos. The sensation is hard to describe. I felt like someone was sitting on me, but in a good way. The sand really is warm and it feels good. Despite the weight, when it was time to get up, it was really easy.

Sand bathing, and getting to and from on the slow local train took up almost all of Day 2. That night we headed out to Kajiki (on the other side of Kagoshima from Ibusuki) to meet up with Iris, who graciously opened up her modern apartment to us for the night. The next morning she took us sightseeing and made sure we got some Kagoshima ramen before we got back on the train.

Day 3
Pretty pink flowers at the waterfall near Iris's house.

Waterfall!

Lunch! It was raining, a perfect day for steaming hot ramen.

We walked around Kagoshima a bit. Saw this statue, went to the art museum which wasn't anything special sadly. There was a man there doing a demonstration of his painting, which made the whole place smell like turpentine and oil paint. His art was hard to appreciate too, very modern and very brown.

Much more exciting than the art museum was the discovery of the entire floor of sweet shops in a department store. Many flavors of mochi ice cream below. We all got cake, then somewhat nauseously made our way back to the station to catch the train home.

The Shinkansen for the first leg of the journey back home. After transfering onto the regular Tsubame line, the trip seemed interminable. But we made it back just fine, maybe a few pounds heavier for all of our eating.