“Never STOP wondering. Never stop WANDERING.” -Anonymous

The small carryon suit case is out from under the bed and it is being filled carefully with just enough “stuff” to get us covered for our 4 days that we will be off the ship and on to a land tour in China!  So far we have travelled 6900 miles fromSan Diego and we have about 200 more miles to go to get to Tianjin which is the port to Beijin.  The last two days we have been at sea.  We did well to skirt most of the bad weather from the typhoon.  The weather has still been breezy and some rain but there has been sunshine too and has been such a welcome sight.  

On Saturday we had a ship tour in Kagoshima.  That was our last port in Japan and maybe one of the most scenic.  The tour bus was full of folks headed to  the volcano ( Mt Sakurojima) which is on an island in the bay and then to a beautiful garden.  The area of Kagoshima from north to south includes subtropic regions and subalpine regions where sow falls.  It is the birthplace of the Satsuma Mandarins.  They have an ideal climate for Sencha Green Tea, Black Vinegar and Isa City Rice.  The nation’s oldest tree the Jamon-Sufi Cedar Tree is 7,200 years old!  The landscape closely resembles that of Italy’s Napoli and the two are sister cities.  Here are some of the notes I took from the English speaking tour guide...

The bathroom is called the happy house with blue and red characters

Hiroko is our guide.  Her name means rich and nice.  Our first stop will be to get on the ferry terminal to get to the island where the active volcano is located.  

Japan has 110 active volcanos and 20,000 hot springs.   

Ten kinds of hot springs are in Japan related to the minerals they contain but there are no radium hot springs.   

Japan does have social security and you can begin taking this at age 65.  

600,000 people live in Kagoshima.   

Average temperature is 67 here.  They are very agricultural and famous for sweet potatoes and green peas.  They make a distilled liquor from sweet potatoes.  Saki is fermented versus distilled.  Kagoshima is one of the largest areas for producing green tea.  Green tea came to Japan in the 6th century by monks from China for medicinal purposes.  

8,000,000 people visit the active volcano area.  There are 22 helicopter locations on the island and many shelters to protect people from ashes should the volcano go off. 5,000!people still live on the island.  

Active fish farming in the bay goes on and one of the most popular fish is yellow tail used for sushi.  Largest radish in the world is grown here which is as big as a child’s head. They make pickles out of them. They also grow the smallest tangerines in the world and they are very sweet.  

Sakurajima means cherry island 

Jima means Island 

Japanese gardens consist of three things; Water plants/ trees and rock.  Very few flowers are found in their traditional gardens because when the beauty of the flowers fade what do you have? You still see the beauty of the rock, water and tree

Heading to the ferry...the whole bus goes on the ferry!  

This is the size of the giant radish they grown!  Behind it on the shelves are sweet potatoes and mandarin oranges.  

Volcanic boulders are everywhere; the volcanic spews ash almost daily; children wear hats at school and some wear hard hats; many people also wear masks; today it was cloudy and rainy and we could not see the top of the volcano due to fog.  This made it a good day for not having ash fall on us.  When people hang their laundry on their porches they have plastic sheeting over the balconies so the ash doesn’t get on their clothing.  

The bay of Kagoshima is in the background...this is where the active fish farming is taking place.

People place coins in the cracks of the volcanic rocks for good luck!

This flyer is in English too; it says things like wash your hair twice to get rid of ash, be aware of the activity of the volcano by getting reports and updates on your cell phone, be aware when biking, or kayaking, and know where shelters are.

Here is one of the many shelters to go to to get away from ash1

The volcano is an island only accessible by ferry which runs 24 hours a day ....also some more history about it.

More view of the bay...

This cute little pickup truck is all set up to seek fresh fruits and vegetables on the island.  He just gets on the ferry with his goods and then drives throughout the island selling from his little truck.  

After about an hour at the island and viewing the volcano and the souvenir sites we reboarded the bus and travelled back by ferry to the mainland.  Now we were headed to a beautiful Japanese garden. It was owned and developed during the feudal war lords period.  It now houses a museum of their industrialization period along with a few lovely restaurants, ponds, specialty craft shops and almost all the original residences and buildings.  Of all the gardens we visited this was the most lovely and the most beautiful of locations.  Kagoshima was one of my favorite places for beauty even if it does have an active volcano!

The grew these vines of flat racks out of the pots and then had them displayed around the grounds...

A few areas had these lovely purple ground covers and even some mums were planted on hillsides in rock gardens..

Some huge bonsai trees!

The garden was called Senganen built in 1658.  The garden was dedicated to the people in 1958.  It’s location by the ocean and in sight of the volcano was lovely.  

The moat area and drainage area..

Original steps and walls...

The museum (no cameras allowed here) of Japanese industrialization.   

Back at the port it was pouring rain!  The middle school band students were all huddled under this tent off to the right.  They played for our send off a great selection of big band tunes include Chattanooga Choo Choo and In the Mood....they were absolutely fantastic and folks from the ship lined the walking deck to take photos and listen to them.  The band teacher had so many of the students doing solo’s and he named every one of them to which the crowd whistled and cheered on.  

This was the end of their beautiful new pier which looks like a huge bandstand area.  One lone lady from town was there with her umbrella and a Japanese flag waving us on...

Then it was out to sea we went.  That night was a little rough again as we had some effects from the typhoon.  They cancelled some activities for Sunday like the Sunday brunch in the main dining room which we were going to try.  All the outside decks were roped off because of the high winds.  Sunday Dan really didn’t feel well with his head cold and now a tummy ache!  So we laid low, watched some good movies in our cabin; went up for soup for lunch and dinner and took in the evening show.  Today he still isn’t feeling much better with the tummy but the head cold is better.  He has slept most of the day between taking a shower, packing our bag for tomorrow when we get off in Beijing and spend four nights off the boat.  I have given him everything I know to give him and he just says his tummy hurts but he isn’t throwing up or having diarrhea so...I think it is just a remnant of this head cold.  I’m trying my darndest NOT to get it but taking Zinc and using the saline spray and trying to stay away from him as much as possible.  Today at lunch in the Lido was Biergarten Festival.  They had the place all decorated like a German Biergarten and the staff had on hats and suspenders to match!  The food was a lot of different sausages, kraut and German dishes.  None of that sounded good to Dan.  He just ate a few crackers and drank water while I had a salad.  We sat out by the pool area that has a retractable roof.  It was sunny and warm with the roof closed and then after we got there they cracked it open a few feet and the cool air immediately filled the area.  We sat for awhile on the loungers by the pool...Dan slept again and I read some of my book.  Then a few folks we met onboard dropped by to ask how he was feeling.  It didn’t take long and we were back in the room; him sleeping on the bed and me getting the blog out.  

Last night our entertainment was a comedian and magician...tonight it is a comedian named John Knight.  I think we will try to get down to see him.  Dan needs to get out a little and its good for him to walk around more.  I’m so hoping that by tomorrow he is going to be able to make this trip!  He says he will.  

Anyway, we know China blocks a lot of sites on the internet so we will see if we can upload.  We stay two nights I Beijing off the boat at the Novotel Peace Hotel; we will see the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, The summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, the Dehe Garden, and the treasure gallery; we don’t know if we will see the square because the communist party is holding many political meetings while we are here.  We fly to Xian on the 26th in the evening; there we stay at the Grand Noble Hotel Xian for two nights; one day is spent entirely on the Terracotta Warriors; then on the 28th we fly to Shanghai where we will reboard the ship.  There we will meet one of my former students, Brenda Rupp for a fun tour of her city using the Hop on Hop off buses.  

We will leave Shanghai on the 29th of October and head toward Hong Kong.  I’ll post again either during or after this big land tour!

Tomorrow we will need to once again meet the Chinese for immigration face to face ....it will be ready to go as a group at 7:50 am.