Suna-mushi onsen, the sand bath in Ibusuki

Suna-mushi onsen (natural sand bath) is a very unique style of onsen in Ibusuki, Kagoshima.
Along the coast of Surigahama in Ibusuki city, there are hotels or onsen facilities which serve suna-mushi onsen style bath.

When you take the bath, you will take the procedure below.
At first, you change your cloth into a yukata (Japanese bathrobe) in a building.
Then you go outside, and walk to the suna-mushi onsen place on beach side.
They set a roof over the onsen place.
You enter under the roof, cover your head with a towel and lie down on the sand bed following instructions of onsen workers there.
Then, the workers put plenty of sand on your body by spade.
You are buried in the sand bath except your face.
Onsen is go through under the sand bed, so you will feel a heat on your back soon.
You begin to sweat all over youｒ body.

When I went to the onsen place and tried the suna-mushi onsen, an onsen worker told me 10 minutes is enough to get the effect of the onsen.
Also he told me some customers didn't follow the instructions of the workers and stayed far more than 10 minutes.
According to the worker, finally the customers got burned by heat of the onsen.

Actually the suna-mushi onsen is very comfortable and good for your health, but it is not good to spend too much time on the hot sand bed.
When you go to there, please follow the instruction by the onsen workers and enjoy safely.

The refreshing tea from a southern country, Chiran green tea

Kagoshima prefecture is a largest production area of green tea in Japan next to Shizuoka.
Above all, Chiran is a representative place for green tea in Kagoshima.
Chiran, Minamikyushu city is located in a southern part of the Satsuma peninsula.

According to legend, Heike no ochiudo (fugitive of Taira clan, whose clan was ruined by Minamoto clan in war) came to Chiran and started to cultivation of green tea at the Kamakura period.
Full-scale cultivation of green tea was started since the beginning of the Meiji period in Chiran.

Today, you can drink Chiran tea or buy the tea leaves everywhere in Kagoshima.
Local restaurants or tea stores serve the tea for you.
Even you can buy Chiran tea in plastic bottle from vending machine on the street.
Chiran tea is aromatic and smooth to drink, so you will like it.

You can enjoy Chiran tea without to go to Chiran, but Chiran has a beautiful view of large tea field, so if you see the view, maybe you will be able to enjoy the tea more.

Getanha, a local traditional sweet in Kagoshima

There is a traditonal sweet named "getanha" in Kagoshima.
Getanha (Kagoshima dialect for "geta no ha") means a support part of geta (traditional wooden clogs).
The form of the sweet looks like a getanha, so it was named getanha.
The sweet getanha is a sort of cake and it is covered by brown sugar.
It has a bit crunchy texture in the surface of it for brown sugar.
But the inside was soft and easy to chew.
Getanha is very sweet food, however if you stay in very hot summer of Kagoshima, you must feel the sweetness is so desirable.
Hot weather makes us want more sugar.
That's why we can find very sweet foods in hot places like Kagosima.

Brown sugar is a special product in Kagoshima prefecture.
So Kagoshima has some local foods made of the brown sugar.
Getanha is one of them.
You can buy the sweet everywhere in Kagoshima with inexpensive price.
I enjoyed it with a green tea which also made in Kagoshima.
I recommend you to taste both getanha and green tea in Kagoshima.
I am sure you will love both of them.

A travel to Kagoshima: day 1, the night on the ferry boat

I began a travel to Kagoshima prefecture.
I have been there in my childhood, but I can't remember how there was like.
Kagoshima has the beautiful view of Mt. Sakurajima.
I have wanted to go there again for a long time.

In the early evening of the day, I got on a ferry boat named "Sunflower" at the Nanko port, Osaka.
I have got the ferry boat once before.
When I was a little kid, me and my family traveled to Kagoshima with this same ferry boat.
So I was a bit excited to get on the boat in my memory of good childhood days.

The inside of the ferry boat was not so special, but clean and comfortable.
I went on deck, sat on a bench there and enjoyed the view of sea and the port in an evening.
The boat started to leave the port to Kagoshima.

After the departure, I went to the restaurant.
They served a buffet style dinner there.
It costed 1540 yen and it was not cheap for me, but I wanted to try it.
I tried and enjoyed it.
They had various nice foods I could enjoy.
I ate too much foods and felt stuffed.

I went back to my room, took a rest.
The ferry boat had various rooms of various grades, and I had reserved a kind of steerage room.
The passage fare for the room was about 7000 yen and it was suitable for me.
It was a big room with large floor.
You take off your shoes at the entrance of the room and step on the floor that covered by carpet.
There were pillow and other bedding for each passenger.
The ferry boat had a storage for variables so we can keep them safe, but you have to take large baggage with you.
The steerage room didn't have enough space for large baggage, so I put my backpack on my pillow side.

There were other passengers.
They were truck drivers, young parents with little children, elder couples and solo travelers like me.
Me and they spent the night in the same floor.
It was an unusual experience to slept with stranger in same space.
The room was not so crowded, therefore the bedtime there was almost comfortable.
One thing I hated was, tut-tutting sounds from some middle aged guys.
There were little children as I mentioned.
Sometimes they giggled with little voice for fun to spent a night in the unusual atmosphere.
I thought they were lovely, but it seemed the guys didn't like them.
Each time kids giggled, some of the guys did tut-tutting back.
I was rather irritated with the rude sounds the guys made.
In addition, one guy who made many tut-tutting sounds started snore as soon as he went asleep.
Another tut-tutting guy was talking loudly with a cellular phone in the room.
How could they blame the tiny giggling of little children?
I hoped the children and their young parents didn't care much about the rude guys.

Anyways I could sleep well at the floor with strangers, until the boat started shaking at the next morning.