Day 5-7 Kagoshima to the Ferry Boat
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After a good night sleep that I hadn’t had for a while, it was time to pack in the morning in the stranger’s home in Tsuchikawa, Kagoshima. It was so nice to have a toaster there in the morning. I’ve come to appreciate having something that we take for granted in our everyday life such as a toaster, hot water, electricity or a roof. The toast and coffee were hot, and gave me energy to go on for another day of cycling.
Cycling over a hill after leaving Tsuchikawa was a beautiful port town of Hashima, Kagoshima. There I found flags of Japan and England. I had to stop and see what that was all about.
It says that 19 Samurai took off this port on a boat prepared by a British trader, Mr. Glover, in 1865 for a three months journey to reach England to study language, science, culture, and military technology in London University, etc. Their newly cultivated knowledge later helped modernize Japan, and that is why this monument was made in this port. They left Satsuma (the old name for Kagoshima), thinking that they might never be able to come back to Japan.
What a nice history I’ve come across on my bike. I studied and lived abroad as well, and went through some difficult times especially at the beginning, but when I imagine these guys going abroad back then, it must have been a huge culture shock.
When you talk about Kagoshima, Satsuma-age is the food that you cannot forget. It’s deep-fried fish cakes. Fish is minced and grounded, and formed into little round or square shapes and fried. They have such great flavor and slightly sweet. You can drink beer with these, or put them on a bowl of udon noodles…. mmm delicious! There was a Satusma-age factory, and we stopped there for little nibbles.
As we got closer to Kagoshima City, we found two cyclists with big luggage on the other side of the road. They were from Tokyo and Osaka. We had lunch together and talked about our cycling trips. They were covering way more mileage per day, whopping 100-120km a day, which was twice as much as ours.
Today’s Special was Buta no Shoga Yaki – Gingered Pork. The rice and miso soup was all you can eat, which all three boys ate plenty of. I couldn’t go that far.
Agedashi-dofu was accompanying today’s special. This is how you make it – you cover tofu with potato starch, and deep fry it. Place that on a plate and pour dashi soup on it. This is one of my favorite Japanese dishes! 
Side walk and bicycle lanes were so wide in many parts of Kagoshima. Just look at this photo – that’s two lanes for pedestrians!
It was cloudy, and finally started raining. It was time for rain clothes for the first time.
After spending the evening in Kagoshima City, we had lunch before heading for my ferry boat ride to Okinawa. A kaiten-zushi restaurant (sushi on a conveyor belt) was near the port, so that’s where we went to eat.
I may have eaten a lot.
So the time came to say good bye to Alvaro Biciclown. What a fun time it has been to have the round-the-world cyclist at our home, and for him to cycle with me in Kyushu. From here on, I am going solo – will I be OK? Well, we shall see.
Smokey volcano, Sakurajima. (we were covered in ash near the port) Good-bye Kagoshima, see you when I come back from Okinawa.
About the Author: Sachi
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