Today was a transit day between Miyajima and Kagoshima by train for the most part.
The ferry from Miyajima to Miyajimaguchi (and then on to Hiroshima)
Our hotel (Remm Hotel) in Kagoshima was chosen without many reviews to back to it up due to it being fairly new, but its turned out to be really really good. Although small (as is the norm everywhere in Japan), the room is cleverly planned to make the best use of space possible.
Free toiletries at the Remm Hotel, Kagoshima
After checking in we went exploring the local shopping area around Kagoshima-Chuo station and Tenmonkan, walked down a street (Perth-dori) where images of kangaroos, galahs, swans and koalas had been embedded into the footpath (sister city of Perth perhaps?), and then went in search of what turned out be a very illusive dish called Tonkatsu, consisting of a broth made from the boiled down bones of the black pig endemic to the region.
The shopping centre at Kagoshima-Chuo, where the main railway station is located
We ended up in a random back alley in Onoya near Takamibashi station, full of tiny restaurants with no English menus, each seating no more than a dozen people, trying to communicate in our nonexistent Japanese that we wanted black pork in broth! Although we didn’t end up with what we wanted, we did end up with a couple of fantastic pork dishes that were well worth the struggle! And to go with it we tried a glass of the local liquor called shochu, a 25% strength liquor made from sweet potato, on the rocks. Surprisingly tasty! We ended up buying ourselves a bottle for consumption on Yakushima island.
Our waiter for the night, and his little friend from next door who loved having her photo taken!
After raiding the local 7-11 for desserts we made our way back to our room, looking forward to hiking around a volcano the next day!