Multilingual Electronic Newsletter Kagoshima Southern Wind Tidings (Vol. 118)

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1 Multilingual Electronic Newsletter Kagoshima Southern Wind Tidings (Vol. 118) Latest Kagoshima News Countdown and Kick-off Event to the 150 th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) Column Finding my Roots by Quek Ying Yan (CIR from Singapore) Kagoshima International Exchange A-Z The 19 th Singapore-Kagoshima Conference Seasonal Tourism Information Segodon Taiga Drama Museum Introduction of Kagoshima Specialty Products Porlex Tea Grinder II Latest Kagoshima News Countdown and Kick-off Event to the 150 th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration The countdown and kick-off event to the 150 th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration was held at Dolphin Port from the 31 st of December to the 1 st of January. The event drew a crowd of about 4000 people, and the online live broadcast to viewers in Japan and worldwide enjoyed high viewership. The event was a huge success with a mini live performance, fireworks display, and visitors wearing the Segodon sun visor caps in unison, and many people shared the moment as Kagoshima welcomed the year of the 150 th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration. We would like to thank everyone who participated in this event. This year, many events related to the Meiji Restoration will dondon (steadily) be held in various places both within and beyond Kagoshima. We will dondon (steadily) keep posting the latest information on the Kagoshima Meiji Restoration Expo website, so do check it out! Kagoshima Meiji Restoration Expo official website: (Japanese only)

2 Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) Column Finding my Roots by Quek Ying Yan (CIR from Singapore) Happy New Year! I am sure you have enjoyed your New Year holidays peacefully with your families. You may be surprised to know that I welcomed the New Year alone for the second time in my life. Actually, to Chinese Singaporeans like me, Chinese New Year is a more important holiday than New Year s Day. Just like how Japanese people celebrate New

3 Year s Day, we visit our friends and families during that period. Although it was rather lonely spending the first day of the year by myself while everyone else are with the people they love, I consoled myself with the fact that I will return home for Chinese New Year instead. New Year s Day last year however, was spent with a friend and his maternal relatives in their traditional Japanese house. We had grilled oysters, drizzled with the juice of sudachi citrus cultivated in their generations-old farm, oden and sushi, among other delicacies. My friend s paternal lineage is equally impressive, going back hundreds of years and with a marker indicating that a castle used to stand on their ancestral land. I think that making a living through farming is charming, and so is having a house that has stood in the same place for hundreds of years. In my home country Singapore, urbanisation in the 1980s meant that my family had to move out from our home in the countryside that housed three generations when I was still a baby. My family house now is an apartment in a public housing flat that my father bought about 20 years ago, but even then it is a 99-year leasehold that cannot be passed down to the next generation. My lineage is similarly broken. My paternal grandfather was born in Fujian Province, China, but he fell victim to human trafficking and was sold to a couple in Singapore as their son when he was 15 years old. On the maternal side, my grandfather emigrated from Kinmen County to Singapore as a carpenter, and my deceased grandmother s family had cut off ties with him, so I did not know any of my grandparents relatives. It was only after I grew up that I became interested in my own roots. Therefore, when I found out that my parents, grandfather and a few aunts and uncles on my maternal side were going to visit my grandfather s hometown last month, I decided to accompany them on the journey. I met up with my relatives in Xiamen, and together we took two boat trips before finally arriving at a Little Kinmen, a small island not even a quarter the size of Mount Sakurajima. The Kinmen Islands are much closer to mainland China than the island of Taiwan, and they were battlefields during the Chinese Civil War, suffering regular shellfire until Military sites and operational cannons are now tourist attractions, and knives made from the steel of artillery shells are one of the local specialties. My grandfather s house was bombed during the war and is now transformed into a small park. We met our distant relatives living nearby, but as the elderly men spoke in the Hokkien dialect, I was unable to join them in conversation. This made me acutely feel the generation gap unique to Singapore, where the first language differs with generation. Before leaving Little Kinmen, my relatives and I offered incense at our ancestral shrine. It was a profound moment greeting my ancestors in a distant land. Thinking that I am taking the same path my grandfather took in leaving the side of family also left me feeling pensive. In this new year, I hope to make progress in life without forgetting my roots. I wish you all a wonderful year ahead.

4 Kagoshima International Exchange A-Z The 19 th Singapore-Kagoshima Conference The 19 th Singapore-Kagoshima Conference was held in Kagoshima from the 10 th to the 12 th of January, with Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Mr Sam Tan as the head of the Singapore delegation. This conference, which started in 1982 and is hosted alternately by Kagoshima and Singapore every two years, serves as a platform for discussion on promoting exchange between the two regions. At the welcome dinner on the 10 th, Governor Mitazono said, Our relationship with Singapore, Asia s centre of trade and finance, is extremely important in marketing Kagoshima s excellent agricultural, livestock and marine products overseas. Furthermore, at the round table meeting held in the afternoon of the 11 th, both Governor Mitazono and Minister of State Sam Tan agreed on the 9 topics of exchange covering the fields of economy, tourism, youth programmes, etc. At the Governor-hosted reception held later that evening, Minister of State Sam Tan tasted Japan s number 1 Kagoshima Wagyu beef and experienced its wonderful flavours. He promised to cooperate in promoting the export of Kagoshima Wagyu beef and other Kagoshima food products to the world. Seasonal Tourism Information Segodon Taiga Drama Museum The Taiga Drama Museum has opened in conjunction with the broadcast of the 2018 NHK Taiga drama Segodon. There are partial replicas of the film sets for the family houses of Saigo and Okubo, screening of behind-the-scenes footage while shooting on location in Kagoshima, and a quiz corner that makes use of projection mapping technology. Immerse yourself in the world of the NHK Taiga drama at this museum. Access Alight at JR Kyushu Kagoshima Chuo Station, 13 minute walk from the east entrance By Kagoshima City View Bus: alight at Segodon-taiga-drama-kan-mae (Segodon Taiga Drama Museum) bus stop By local bus: alight at Konan-koko-mae (Konan High School) bus stop By city tram: alight at Shinyashiki tram stop on line 1, 1 minute walk By car: from Kyushu Expressway, get off at Kagoshima-kita IC and drive for another 20 minutes

5 Address: 20-1 Kajiya-cho, Kagoshima-shi, Kagoshima Prefecture (grounds of former Kagoshima City Hospital) Admission fees: Same day tickets Adults (high school students and above): 600 yen Children (elementary and junior high school students): 300 yen Advance tickets Adults (high school students and above): 480 yen Children (elementary and junior high school students): 240 yen Group tickets (for groups of 20 or more, reservations required) Adults (high school students and above): 480 yen Children (elementary and junior high school students): 240 yen Business hours: 9am 5pm (last entry at 4.30pm) Operation period: 13 January 2018 (Sat) 14 January 2019 (Mon, public holiday) *open all year

6 Introduction of Kagoshima Specialty Products Porlex Tea Grinder II The Porlex Tea Grinder II is the winner of the Kagoshima Governor s Award at the 2017 Kagoshima New Specialty Products Contest under the Crafts and Household Goods category. Freshly ground tea leaves for a delicious and healthy life. Grinding tea leaves into fine matcha powder with a mill avoids the problem of disposing used tea leaves and allows one to wholly enjoy the tea leaves nutritional benefits. Also, the tea grinder enables one to adjust the grind size depending on use. You can easily enjoy the fragrance and taste of freshly ground tea leaves at the convenience of your home. This product, made for enjoying green tea in many ways, is aptly made in Kagoshima, one of Japan s top tea-producing regions with a wide expanse of tea plantations.

7 Kagoshima Prefectural Government Website: A note from the Editors (Kagoshima Prefecture International Affairs Division) What did you think of this month s Kagoshima Southern Wind Tidings? The editors will continue to strive to make this prefectural foreign language newsletter a source of information and a bridge to connect all of you to Kagoshima. We d like to ask our readers to provide their opinions, suggestions, article contributions and Kagoshima-related news. Inquiries International Affairs Division, PR and Tourism Strategy Department Kagoshima Prefectural Government 10-1 Kamoike-shinmachi, Kagoshima City, Japan TEL: / FAX: BY English : cir1@pref.kagoshima.lg.jp Japanese : minami@pref.kagoshima.lg.jp Chinese : cir2@pref.kagoshima.lg.jp Korean : cir3@pref.kagoshima.lg.jp Kagoshima Prefecture owns the copyright to this report. Any and all unauthorized use of this report (redistribution, BBS, posting, etc) is prohibited.