Great Weekend Destinations from Tokyo

Southern Charm

Note: This review appeared in the February 2005 issue of InTouch, the monthly magazine of the Tokyo American Club. It was written by Christine Miki, author of Tokyo Stories, a humorous novel on expatriate life in Japan.

Kagoshima is less than a couple of hours by plane from Tokyo but feels like an entirely different world. It’s also one of my favorite weekend destinations. My husband and I have often caught the early Saturday morning flight to Kagoshima and returned to Tokyo just before dinner on Sunday evening, feeling like we had enjoyed a proper holiday and still had lots of time back home to catch up on newspapers, mail and laundry.

Located on the southern tip of Kyushu island, Kagoshima is a great charmer because of its relaxed atmosphere and its many scenic attractions, including Mount Sakurajima , an active volcano that sits majestically on an island opposite Kinko Bay (James Bond fans might recognize its star performance in You Only Live Twice), and its tropical coastlines. The city of Kagoshima has been hailed as the “Naples of the Orient” by some guidebooks because of the similarities of Mount Sakurajima and Kinko Bay with Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples in Italy.

Despite being far from Japan’s traditional commercial centers, Kagoshima has always been a fiercely proud prefecture (the Shimazu clan who ruled the area for almost 700 years until the Meiji Restoration unilaterally declared war on Britain in 1863!) with an active group of intellectuals, including Takamori Saigo and Toshimichi Okubo, two prominent leaders of the Meiji Restoration.

These days, modern technology has hardly brought Kagoshima into the mainstream—the city still has a sleepy backwater feel to it—and its business and political communities are still so close-knit that you could literally call them one big happy family. Not too long ago I was invited to speak at an international forum there for businesspeople and political leaders. What struck me most was that everyone knew everyone else very well, and that they were all either relatives, in-laws, neighbors, schoolmates or drinking buddies. “We all know each other so it’s hard to do anything bad here,” joked one of my hosts. “There would be no place to hide.”

For a short trip, I would recommend staying at the Shigetomisou Ryokan and a visit to the Senganen Garden in the city outskirts. Both are in the same general direction from Kagoshima’s city center.

The Shigetomisou is a destination in itself, particularly for history and culture buffs who will relish the idea of staying in an authentic Shimazu family villa from the 1820s, complete with antiques and interesting curios from the past. The innkeepers like to point out the nooks and crannies where family members supposedly hid in times of danger and the rooms used by the Shimazu lords and their paramours. This old-fashioned ryokan may be a little too somber and museum-like for some, but I can assure you that villa life in the 19th century doesn’t get more authentic than this. The best rooms are on the ground floor facing the ryokan's famous gardens. In 1967, Shigetomisou earned itself a license to kill as well as serve when it was used as a backdrop for Sean Connery and co. It has hardly changed since then.

Meanwhile, a visit to the Senganen Garden, including the Goten Villa and Shoko Shusei Museum, shouldn’t be missed. The Senganen Garden is one of the prettiest gardens in southern Japan, with unparalleled views of Sakurajima and Kinko Bay and an assortment of rock gardens, bubbling brooks and flowering plants. One of the most enchanting spots here is a picturesque stream beside which the Shimazu family hosted poetry writing parties. Amidst such beauty, it’s easy to see how budding poets were so inspired.

The excellently preserved Goten Villa, which was originally built by the Shimazu family in the 1650s as a summer home and which eventually became their main residence in the late 19th century, provides a closeup view of Japanese aristocratic life. The Shoko Shuseikan Museum by the entrance of the Senganen, meanwhile, boasts an extensive collection of Shimazu family memorabilia and old photographs. The sepia-like photographs, including several of the late Empress Nagako when she visited the Goten Villa as a young girl, surrounded by her courtiers and the Shimazu women, provide a window on a long-gone era of gracious living, Japanese style.

The combination of Kagoshima’s agreeable climate, ash-spewing volcano and history of single-mindedness make the Satsuma city an intriguing weekend getaway.

Kagoshima is a 110-minute flight from Tokyo.

The best way to get around Kagoshima is to rent a car at the airport with a navigation system that allows you to input the telephone numbers of the places you wish to visit.

The Shigetomisou is located between central Kagoshima City and the Senganen Garden, and is five minutes by car from the JR Kagoshima Station. Accommodation starts from ¥24,000 per person including two meals. Tel: 099-247-3155 (Japanese only)

Senganen Garden and the Shoko Shusei Museum (Shoko Shuseikan) are open all year. Tel: 099-247-1551 (Japanese only)

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