Tanegashima

In the late 1800s an American ship wrecked off of the coast of Tanegashima and the local residents rescued the crew and took care of them. After the crew got back to the U.S. President Cleveland and congress sent a letter of appreciation to the residents along with $5,000. This was in recognition of them going out of their way to help strangers. This event is still celebrated each year with a ceremony to help instill this helpful spirit in today’s children. The $5,000 gift was used to improve education on the island. I began my day by visiting one of the schools that benefited from this gift. It is where my friend Hiromi went to Elementary School and she teaches English there twice a month. The school is first through sixth grades and only has 16 students. I showed a PowerPoint slide show with pictures of our farm and Hiromi translated my descriptions. Afterwards, Hiromi had each of the children come up and introduce themselves to me in English. Most were very shy about trying this, but they all eventually did. Below is a picture of me with the kids.

Our next stop was a beef cattle operation. It is in a beautiful location. Check out the picture below – how would you like to have that view? They are a cow-calf operation and produce native Japanese cattle. Once again we were shown around by the son who is involved in the operation. The major difference in their operation is they wean the calves from the mother almost immediately and feed them milk replacer. This is done for two reasons. First, these cows don’t always produce very much milk and second, they want the cow to breed back as soon as possible. They have an automatic feeder for the calves that uses RFID tags around the calves’ necks to know which calves are eating. They are able to produce all of their own hay and also feed the tops of sugarcane that is produced locally, which would otherwise go to waste. All of their calves are shipped off of the island to other growers. When the BSE outbreak occurred in Japan the market was depressed for about two years but he also has a fishing business that helped with the family’s income during this time. Below is a picture of Hiromi and one of the friendly calves.

Next we stopped at a scenic overlook that is one of Hiromi’s favorite places. I am sure you can see why in the picture below. Notice all of the farm fields in the foreground.

At the big dinner party in Kanoya I had met a friend of Hiromi’s that started a company making products out of the local sweet potatoes. This area is known for sweet potatoes. They are different from the sweet potatoes in the U.S., the inside flesh is white instead of orange. Below is a picture of some of his staff making sweet potato cakes. All of the work is done by hand and all of the ingredients are produced locally. They also make cookies.

For lunch we went to a small café run by surfers. It has the feel of a place you would find in rural Hawaii near a surfing beach. Tanegashima is a surfing destination. Hiromi had told me that we were going to have real hamburgers for lunch and I was excited, but when I looked at the menu one of the very few English words was Dr. Pepper. I am sure that everyone back in Oklahoma understands how excited that made me. This is a really neat little place. I enjoyed it so much I had to take a picture.

After lunch we went to see a friend of Hiromi’s that produces sugarcane. She was the first female farmer I had met in Japan. There are a group of women who work together in the production of sugarcane. It is near the end of the harvest but we got to see them harvesting. These are really neat ladies and I really enjoyed meeting them and learning a little about sugarcane.

Our next stop was at some caves that you can walk all of the way through to the other side and come out on the beach right next to the ocean. Below is a picture looking out of the cave and another one of the beach outside.

The most well known thing about Tanegashima is that it is the home of the Japanese Space Center where they launch their rockets carrying satellites into space. You can drive right through the Space Center on a public road. We went to the Visitors Center Museum. It is very nice and informative. Below is a picture of the launch facilities.

Our last stop before going to the airport was a resort on the southern tip of the island. I took this picture there.

This was an incredible day and I was truly sad to say goodbye to Hiromi. I hope I will be able to come back to Tanegashima. As my plane came in for a landing at Kagoshima, I was able to see the volcano. Although it is not perfect this is the best picture I could get from the plane.