Kagoshima

Christianity was first established in Japan by St Francis Xavier. St Francis and fellow Jesuit priests first made landfall in Kagoshima in 1549 but, because of opposition from the local authorities, they quickly transferred their evangelising efforts to the north-west of Kyushu Island.  By 1614, when Christianity was officially banned and ruthlessly suppressed, there were estimated to be over half a million converts in Japan, a proportion of the population greater than the percentage of Christians in Japan today. The 1614 ban was not lifted until 1873.
Despite the best of intentions, we arrived too late for mass at the little St Francis Xavier Church. This was built in 1949 partly from a donation by the Vatican to celebrate the 400 year anniversary of the landing of St Francis Xavier in Kagoshima, and the beginning of Christianity's tragic history in Japan.
We then decided to visit Sakurajama Island with its still active volcano towering over Kagoshima and spewing smoke that settles as fine dust. This soot finds its way into everything, making eyes sore and teeth gritty. On our way to the pier, we were delayed by a young woman just wanting to talk. This would be the first of many encounters with people wishing to practice their English on us. We were also introduced to another common part of our touring in Japan and that was the many people who came forward to offer help when we needed it. In this case, an old, crippled man helped us understand the intricacies of the ticket machine for boarding the ferry.
The ferry ride provides magnificent views of the volcanic island. We had the deck to ourselves as the other passangers were in the bowel of the vessel watching televison. Baseball and wrestling were the most popular watched programs.
From the ferry terminal we took a hair-raising bus ride along a narrow, climbing road carved into the craggy volcanic rock deposited from by past eruptions. The smoke grew thicker and the ground appeared to vibrate. Lib took my hand in an exaggerated show of reassurance until I read from our brochure on the island. Eruptions occurred approximately every twenty years and from my calculations another one was due any tick of the clock. Perhaps by way of compensation for the constant Russian roulette imposed on the island's inahabitants, Sakurajama is also famous for producing the largest radishes and smallest oranges in the world.
Lunch at the summit was made eventful by a large group of middle-aged men who, laughing at us or with us, were very persistent in having us join them in drinking copious quantities of sake. After much shaking of hands and hearty farewells more appropriate to friends of long standing, we escaped back to the plastic marvels of downtown Kagoshima where, despite it being Sunday and a bank holiday, all the shops and department staores were carrying on a vigourous trade.
Cars with loudspeakers prowled the streets blaring out commercials or political messages. Direct or door to door canvassing is not allowed. Even in our hotel room the noise intruded. Shops went to extraordinary lengths with their displays: bright, colourful and always so clean. Pinball parlours blared out popular songs next to delicious looking pastry shops. Young college men in black uniforms and boys wearing caps like those of the US Civil War wandered the streets. Everyone was immaculately dressed. Men wore the obligatory tie, even when being tourists, and women dressed like fashion plates, with the occasional one wearing the kimino.
Kagoshima is now a relatively out of the way provincial capital, but it was once the capital of the powerful Satsuma clan. In August, 1863 a British squadron bombarded Kagoshima because of the clan's refusal to pay reparations for some of its members killing an Englishman. This brought about a change in the clan's williingness to open itself to western influences, particularly industry and armaments. Thus strengthened they were able to support the Emperor in replacing the Tokugawa Shogunate's rule of Japan in 1868.