Golden Week - Kumamoto

It's Golden Week again, that wonderful time in Japan when four national holidays fall within a week of one another and pretty much the entire country goes on vacation. Last year, I celebrated the holidays (ok, or more like the free vacation days off from work) with a trip to Korea with Joe and Brianne. This year, I decided to visit the last major Japanese island I have yet to see: Kyushu. We sort of got shorted this year, with two of the holidays falling on a Saturday and Sunday, but it's a four-day-weekend none-the-less, and I decided to make the most of it.

I put in a full day on Friday, leaving work a little later than I planned to, and headed straight for home to grab my hiking pack and hit the Shikansen station. My plans for the weekend were originally just to get to Yakushima, an island of the southern coast (in Kagoshima-ken) and Japan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site (more on all this later), but when I was playing with the train times and realized how far of a trip it was going to be, I decided to break it up and stop off somewhere on my way to Kagoshima (the port city where my ferry left from on Saturday). Luckily for me, this also provided an ideal opportunity to visit some friends from the PEPY program in Cambodia living in Kumamoto.

Kumamoto is a medium-sized city and doesn't have a lot to boast beyond it's castle (one of the "three great castles of Japan") and the amazing ladies I know that reside there, but I am really glad I stopped.

Taking the bullet train is always an enjoyable experience for me (I even love waiting for my train to come and watching the others zoom past), but because it's Golden Week, I was a little naive with not considering how packed the trains were going to be. I didn't have any seat reservations and was able to nab a window seat in the beginning of the trip (the elevated view gave me one of the most stunning views of Awaji Island and the inland sea that I have ever seen!), but was standing or sitting on my bag for most of the four hour trip past Himeji.

Kumamoto

When I arrived in Kumamoto, my friend Jo picked me up and we drove to her house in the "country." It was a little surreal to see one of the PEPY heads outside of Cambodia (or rather, in Japan... a place both Jo and I temp. call home but don't know each other from), but we had a lot of fun just hanging out and talking in Jo's living room. She lives in an outer suburb of the city, in a rather new apartment complex, surrounded by rice fields, but also in a neighborhood and nestled between a vast mountain chain. We were also going to watch a movie I brought with, but by the time 3am rolled around and we were still talking, we decided it was time to hit the hey if we were going to see the Kumamoto Castle before my train the next day.

We got up early and had a big breakfast before driving into the city and parking in a lot near the castle. It was further from the station than I expected, so I was happy to be so close, and the castle grounds were more vast than I expected, so walking up to the main turret was not strenuous, but also the perfect distance for a little stroll on a sunny day.

Kumamoto Castle

As I mentioned earlier, Kumamoto is one of the "three great Castles of Japan" (they love their lists!), but the current structure is actually only about 40 years old. The original was burnt down during the civil war and further destroyed during a rebellion by the fuedal lord who at first supported the Meiji Restoration (westernization) and then reversed his opinion when he thought the movement had gone too far. The castle is smaller than Himeji and black in color (like Hikone), but it's still impressive and I grew excited when I saw it's outline ont he horizon as we entered the city.

Jo and I walked around the castle for a bit, checking out the view of the city and taking pictures with the local ninja and samurai (of course!), before I realized I was late for my train (erm, there was a reason I had two later train schedules with me...) so we had to go. I got dropped off at the station and we said a few quick goodbyes as I made my way to the train to Kagoshima.

Kyushu Sanyo Shinkansen

The surprising thing about the Kyushu train lines, or maybe just the Tsubame or Shinkansen, is that when I had to transfer halfway through, I just walked off the express and onto the Shinkansen on track over. No separate station! Not sure how that works with tickets, but I have a feeling it could change when the new Kyushu Shinkansen (bullet train, by the way) lines are completed in 2012. I was also really impressed that the Shinkansen was completely non-smoking. If you've ever been stuck in a smoking car on a long ride... you know why!

Kagoshima Port

After about an hour and a half, I arrived in sunny Kagoshima, the southern-most city on Kyushu Island. I had some time before my bus came, so I explored the shopping area a bit, enjoyed the sun and admired the large volcano that overlooks the town (actually on a nearby island and you can't go up because it's active) before hitching my ferry to Yakushima...