Golden Week (Part 8): Ibusuki and Chiran

Saturday, May 3
Today we drove south, to the famous sand baths of 指宿 (Ibusuki)!

We stopped at a 道の駅 for lunch, where Chris ate a cold noodle salad and I ordered a steamed tofu meal that took forever to arrive.

The parking lot at the next 道の駅 was full. Was it the "Princess Atsu Burger" (a gigantic--even by American standards--toasted bun stuffed with miso chicken)? Was it the chance to pinpoint one's hometown on a foam map with a yakitori stick?

Maybe it was the view.

I found happiness in biwa (loquat?) soft cream.

We finally made it to Ibusuki in the early afternoon. The dinosaur-esque mascot at the left of the sign is イッシー, the Nessie-like creature said to inhabit the local lake. We didn't have a chance to visit though.

As it was a Saturday, we found ourselves stuck in a long line for parking.

We were lucky to make it into spots beside the water. As we left, these baths were covered by high tide, and guests were ushered onto sand much further ashore.

How to Enjoy 砂むし
1. Remove your clothes and don a light yukata and rubber slippers. Tie your robe tightly!
2. Lie down in a shallow pit of sand. Tie a towel around your neck.
3. Relax as old women shovel hot sand over your body. The sand is slightly heavy and beneath it, you feel as though you're covered by thick layers of blankets.
4. SWEAT.

5. Break free from your sand mound within ten minutes.
6. Return to the changing rooms. Remove your sandy yukata. Rinse off. Wash off with soap. Soak in the onsen.

ああ, さっぱりした！

From Ibusuki, we drove north to 知覧 (Chiran), where we wandered through the gardens of old samurai houses open to public viewing. It wasn't all that thrilling, but I did indulge in the thought that warriors once walked the streets that we did. We bought cold Chiran tea from a small shop, and sipped as we attempted to make intelligent commentary on the choices of shrubbery or the arrangements of the rocks.

Unfortunately, we arrived too late in the day to visit local museums dedicated to kamikaze pilots who had trained at and departed from Chiran Air Force Base. The Chiran Peace Museum features thousands of photos, letters, and mementos left behind by the young men, and the Hotaru Museum once served as a restaurant at which departing pilots would dine, leaving their stories and goodbyes with the motherly innkeeper.

We returned to Kagoshima City via the Skyline, a scenic expressway, and for dinner we caught the city streetcar to 天文間 (Tenmonkan), the shopping district of Kagoshima. We tasted the local ramen at a well-known shop run by a sullen jiisan behind the cash register. The cooks worked silently, surrounded by counter seats atop which customers perched and stared, curious and hungry. One cook--a large man--used a wire basket to scoop noodles from a steaming pot, flinging excess water onto the floor before dumping the noodles into empty bowls. Another cook--this one a large woman--topped the noodles with handfuls of spices, green onions, and chopped pork. The dishes were finished with a generous ladle each of two types of fragrant broth--presumably one chicken and one pork, in true Kagoshima style--before being served. Though ramen often tastes greasy and heavy, the combination of flavors in this version were clean and flavorful, the pork topping tender and salty; I left content over the 1000 yen we paid per bowl. For dessert, we selected another Kagoshima favorite: shirokuma. The word translates as "white bear (polar bear)", but in this warm, southerly prefecture, shirokuma is a dessert of finely shaved (or chopped) ice, topped with a syrup of sweetened condensed milk and a pattern of colorful gelatins and fruit arranged to resemble the face of a bear. Refreshing and perfect for summer!

I'm sorry for the absence of ramen/shirokuma pictures, but I forgot my camera at the hotel that night!