The largest shrine in Kagoshima is, of course, Terukuni Shrine.
And right in front of the shrine runs Terukunidori, stretching north to south.
The west side of this street is Tenmonkan.
It’s the area I visited every night for drinks,
and the one I’ve shown many times across previous posts.
On the opposite side of Tenmonkan,
meaning the east side of Terukunidori,
you’ll find the art museum, the city hall,
and also the Yamagataya Department Store.
Today I wanted to show you a bit of this side of the city.
Yamagataya is the only department store in Kagoshima.
It was founded in 1751, which means the company is over 270 years old.
The department-store format began in 1916,
so even that alone is more than a century of history.
There’s no doubt it’s a very old department store.
Japan’s department stores used to have juice stands.
When department stores spread across the country during the Showa era,
fresh fruit blended in a mixer became a symbol of being fashionable.
The idea of going shopping and then having a cup of mix juice —
it felt like the richness of the bubble period.
That kind of leisurely luxury.
So many department stores in Japan still have fresh-juice counters.
And at Yamagataya, a juice stand from the Showa era remains just as it was.
I took a break from walking and had a cup of mix juice.
I didn’t ride the tram at all on this trip,
but walking around a city that has one always makes me take photos.
Maybe it’s a vague yearning for something I never properly had.
Maybe that unfamiliarity and newness
are what make me want to travel again.
Terukuni Shrine enshrines the lord who led the Satsuma Domain,
modernizing Kagoshima during the late Edo period.
Satsuma was known for adopting Western technology
long before the Meiji Restoration,
and by the end of the shogunate,
it had far more advanced technology and economic power than other domains.
That strength later became the foundation
for Satsuma’s key role in the Meiji Restoration.
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