Day 6 - Kagoshima - Onsen

The famous Kagoshima dinner we had last night included chicken sashimi, along with other sashimi items that we were familiar with (see the middle dish).  Upon hearing eating raw chicken, all of us were reluctant to try for fearful of getting sick. Before knowing, I picked a small piece from the dish that looked like bamboo shoot and ate it.  It didn't taste like bamboo shoot but I thought it was some kind of Japanese pickled vegetables.  It was later I found out that it was a piece of chicken skin.  For some one who dislike chicken skin (even cooked ones) and accidentally ate it raw, I took the news rather calmly and did not throw up.  The rest of the chicken sashimi was cooked in the broth before consumption.  Not sure why the chicken can be eaten raw here in Kagoshima (at least that was what the restaurant claimed)!

The hotel provided onsen facilities and we decided to give it a try.  It was closed to 11:00 pm but surprising crowded.  Like most people, I was a bit gun shy initially but soon adapted to the custom of nothingness. The scale of the onsen is very small due to the size of the hotel but enough to sample the culture.  Despite the obsessiveness of cleanliness of the Japanese people, I wondered about the sanitation of the shower facilities after onsen where people vigorously rub their dead skin off and before the shower place was thoroughly cleaned, the next person waiting in line sat on the same stool and wash her body.