Kagoshima

Kagoshima is a laid-back, flowery, palm-lined southern getaway on the Satsuma Peninsula with mild weather, outgoing people, and a smoking volcano out in the bay. Ancient relics believed to date back to 9,000 BC indicate that humans have been in the area a very long time indeed. It became a center of trade with Korea and China and was an important fortress town from the mid-16th century until the Meiji Restoration. This is where Saigo Takamori and his rebel followers (reduced to a few hundred from 40,000) made their last stand against the new Emperor on September 24, 1877, chased here after having sacked Kumamoto Castle. Facing 300,000 well-supplied troops, they had no chance, and Takamori was injured in the fight. Rather than face capture, he ordered one of his own men to cut off his head. Reviled and vilified during the rush to modernization, he was posthumously pardoned and honored as a national hero.