Kagoshima Ibusuki Sand bath（鹿児島指宿）~~ (16th May 2015)

One of the symbolic feature in Kagoshima is definitely the Volcano Sakurajima! It is still very lively and explodes very frequently. According to the Sakurajima official website, calculating till Nov 2015, it exploded 737 times so far!! 

My friends who lives in Kagoshima sometimes get this black rain because of the ash being mixed up with the rain!! 

 Though I am lucky enough to see it exploding on the train!! Look at the smoke being emitted~~~

Back to the topic on Sand Bath, we went to Ibusuki by train to enjoy the famous sand bath, while looking at the sea!


Just a reminder! The trains don't come frequently so make sure you check the time table before waiting for the train! The trains may be 40 mins apart!!






Also, the transport card might not work in certain area, so you might still have to buy tickets. If you have any questions, check with the ticket box!

For ibusuki, it's outside the area, so you have to buy train tickets. Or you can pay the difference in the price after you come back to the Kagoshima Central station.

There is a free foot hot spring in front of the Ibusuki station!

 On our way to the sand bath place.

We saw this cartooned map which tells you where you can go in Ibusuki!

 We went to this Sunamushi Kaikan Saraku (http://www.ibusuki.or.jp/modules/xfsection/article.php?articleid=90). It took us about 10-15 mins to walk from Ibusuki station to this place.

It gives you directions as to how to enter the sand bath.

1. After you received the locker key, towel and yukata (the japanese styled gawn), you get changed into the yukata.

2. Then you can wear the slippers given and go out to the sand bath place!

3. The sand bath takes about 10 mins because otherwise you will be overheated and may feel a bit dizzy. (just like sauna)

4. Then you go rinse your body and have a shower

5. There will also be like a public hot spa/bath place where you can enjoy your hot spring after the sand bath!

Female changing room entrance

As I am not allowed to take any more photos, I will copy and paste some official photos for you.







  
At first, wait for the staff to dig a hole for you. The sand on the surface is cold but as they dig in, the sand becomes hot!  Then you lie on it and they will start covering you with sand! The sand is surprisingly heavy too! Then you can fall asleep. After 10 mins, they will come to you and get you out of the sand!















This is the sea view you will be facing while enjoying the sand bath!


The weather wasn't too good when I was there, but I guess when it's hot season, the view will be even nicer!!





The price list is as follows:

	Sand Bath price	Hot Spring price
Adult（Secondary School or above)	※　１，０８０円	６１０円
Child（Primary school or below)	※　５９０円	３００円

※This price included the yutkata rental fee

There is a Sanraku towel to buy which costed 120 yen and it has the logo on it so you can remember you have been to sand bath before if you use the towel again! But you can choose not to buy it if you have brought your own towel!

After the sandbath and hot spring, it's my habit to drink milk!


In Hong Kong, Japanese milk has always been labelled as very thick, delicious! It is also very expensive to purchase Japanese milk! So I just had to drink as much as I can while I was in Japan!




After sand bath and onsen (hot spring), we went to walk around the area!

Another sand bath near Saraku (took this secretly)

 It's actually quite a good walk after the sand bath because your body is very relaxed after that!

We met new friends in our Kagoshima Guest House and went to have sand-bath together!

Oh and I ate this sweet potato ice-cream!

It's just opposite the Sand bath place and it was sold inside the souvenir shop! It tasted the very real sweet potato, not the fake ones. So to me, it's like heaven!


Strongly recommend this one!!! ***** (5 stars)












We also went exploring empty buildings and climbed to the rooftop... Though I am not sure whether it's legal... >< It was fun though!!

I must say, I enjoyed this day very much!! So I strongly recommend you to stay in this guesthouse and meet new people and go exploring with them!! (please visit my last entry for guesthouse information)

The owner and us!

They also have this board where they recorded all tourists with different nationalities!!



We also wrote message on it!! (You can see this photo if you go visit this guesthouse XD)














And that's the end of the sand bath day! Please leave comments if desired!!

Kagoshima（鹿児島） delicious food deux (16th - 18th May)

Catching up from the last entry, now I will be introducing the main meals  dishes that are extremely famous in Kagoshima!

Being recommended by the Guesthouse owner, we went to Butatoro Ramen shop.

This shop isn't far away from our guest house and it's just next to the central station shopping centre. It's in one of the streets on the right hand side of the shopping mall.

The no. 1 menu was the Butatoro Ramen which costed 750yen. But if you want half -cooked egg to be added it, it will cost 870 yen.

Comparing to all the ramen I have eaten, I think I like Kagoshima flavour the best. The soup was very thick and the ramen's chewiness is just right for me! One bowl is already so fulfilling that I couldn't eat lunch after that...

As it was sooooooo good, I bought this souvenir pack, costing 1080 yen and it contained two ramen. You can bring it home and cook it yourself!


The next thing to introduce is....... Black pork shabushabu!

 This shop had a very posh entrance and it looks very expensive. But since black pork is going to be expensive anyway, we just entered...

We order one sugiyaki and one shabushabu.

Shabushabu's soup is clearer and has less additional flavours. So you can taste the black pork clearer with it.

Sugiyaki soup is darker and as you can see it adds more flavour to the soup. But if you like stronger  flavours, I think you will like this one better.

The two sets diff in the sauce you dip in and the soup. Me and my friend ordered two to share so that we can taste both of them! If I didn't remember wrong, one set costed about 1700 yen.

I think black pork has more fats than the normal pork and it is more smooth than the normal pork so it's fresher. But again because I don't like the feeling of eating lots of fats, I prefer eating other meat than black pork.






Talking about black pork, we also tried Tongatsu (fried pork) black pork version.

We picked a restaurant next to the guesthouse and it costed 1200 yen.

 It comes with a set with miso soup and rice.

Again, nearly half of the pork is purely fat, so it didn't match my taste. But it fried it in a way that it's crispy outside and soft inside, so it's not bad at all! (Though I really prepare the normal pork one with less fat)






Next thing I wanna introduce is the Kagoshima beef!

We went to this restaurant that specialise in the locally bred beef called 薩摩牛　Satsumagyu! It is a ranked A4 or above.

The restaurant is called nabeshima. Please  visit https://www.pref.kagoshima.jp/ag01/sangyo-rodo/nogyo/syokuiku/suishinten/navi/kagoshima/niku/nabeshima-tenmonkanhonten.html



It looks very posh here and it was separated into different corners and rooms!

It has blinds so that you can have your own private space!

Because we really don't know which part to order, we chose this "all combination" set which contains the recommended parts of the beef.
(5800 yen)

 This is the "all combination" set and it also contained the insides of an ox. (the far right)

Out of all the parts, I preferred the ribs one because it's very tender and beefy!!!



They gave you the grilled beef sauce and sea salt to eat with it. But I only used the sea salt because the beefy sauce will cover the very excellent taste of it!!!

The sea salt brought the taste of the beef out even more and it melted in my mouth!!!!

yum!!!!

I had to say, it's one of the best grilled beef I have ever eaten in my life!!







Now I will be tell you about the snacks we ate while we were shopping on the shopping street

there is a free piano to play and the whole street will listen to it!

Though it's a bit out of tune....












We ate this manjyu (bun) with honey flavoured which apparently is very famous here.

But I think it's just normal...

(shop: 蜂楽饅頭 鹿児島本店)

 Sweet potato is also very famous in kagoshima and we saw this kagoshima special version crepe with Kagoshima local sweet potato cream filling!!!!


350yen~


It was really good!! as sweet potato is my favourite!!
























And this sweet potato pudding!!!!








































Oh! And I won't be able to forgive myself if I don't introduce this Dessert cafe to you!!





Chestnut cake!!!

Melon cream cake!!!

Cheese cake!

And you can drink free tea with it.

 Rare half-baked soft cheese cake!!!! Which I think taste the best out of all and we ate it twice while we were staying in Kagoshima!!!!!! It was very cheesy and smooth which brings out all the cheesy sensation to your tongue!!



And we ate some grilled sticks for dinner! (cos we ate too much during the day actually...)

Cheese Fondu with different grilled meat and vegetable!!

One night, we lost or way but found this beautiful park!! (just a random fact)

 please leave messages if you have any questions!!