I hope you enjoyed Easter, as much as I did. Keep hanging in there, together we'll make it!
As always, I'm incredibly thankful for Magzillasaurus help.
Day Sixty
*Day Fifty-Nine*
"Hey, listen to this. They call Kagoshima Japan's Hawaii and compare it to Naples, Italy." Hermione laughed from the flowery description.
They were a little late to decide which activity they would do the next day. It got a little forgotten after a new bout of lovemaking that morning and a copious brunch-sized breakfast her wizard ordered to recover from all the effort. Hermione wanted to answer cockily, but his lips kept shutting down every rebuttal, and in the end, she caved in and allowed him to serve her.
Perkins had called their room, urging them to pass on their selection before three o'clock in the afternoon. They had an hour left.
"I don't know a thing about Naples." He bit into an overly buttered scone, back resting against the headboard with a pillow between. Hermione wanted to eat at the table to avoid crumbles. Still, he reminded her of her wizarding powers and the use of the scourgify spell. He won in the end, perhaps because he had exhausted her.
"Neither do I, but they say it has much in common with Naples. The palm tree-lined streets, its mild weather, and how the volcano Sakurajima resembles the Vesuvius in Italy." She read aloud.
"I'm not coming close to that fire-spitting mountain. Not even toe-dipping." He pulled his scone away to make his statement. One lava spitting volcano is more than enough for a lifetime. He bit determinedly into the baked biscuit.
"I agree, don't worry." She giggled. "Well, you do have the choice between visiting the destructive force of a volcano, they describe it as a high-intensity activity with much walking. Or you can experience the human spirit with the beauty of nature. We're lucky in the end, both are walking tours and marked as high-intensity."
"Not even toe-dipping with that volcano!" He reminded her with a raised finger.
"The city of Kagoshima it is then," she closed the book with a thump. "Not even toe-dipping?"
"Not even the tip of my toenail!" The youthful look on his face was hilarious to watch. She bent double in laughter.
*Day Sixty*
Describing Kagoshima as Japan's Hawaii wasn't so farfetched. This was the first thought that occurred to Hermione upon arrival. The bay was surrounded by palm trees, across the bay Sakurajima stood tall as a deity sentinel. The three-peaked mountain also resembled a giant molar, like one of those tooth drawings her father used to have in his practice hanging on the wall.
Anyway, it was astonishing in its own right and probably the reason why this city has a tropical look.
Next to her, Draco looked with anything but awe at the same volcano. There was something beautiful about this destructive monster one could not deny.
The boat approached the pier, an island connected from a distance to the mainland by one single road, with only one large grass field and parking lots for short stays, the tourist busses lined up in a row. An open area that heavily contrasted with the shore, a mix and match of low constructions and higher apartment blocks.
The masses that went off-board headed to one of the tour busses, Draco and Hermione's was filled with some familiar faces. They were welcomed by a woman, Mikiko, who gave a small history lesson about the Chiran Peace Museum.
"The Chiran Peace Museum used to be an army flight training school, but it was transformed into a military airbase for Tokko. Tokko means "special attacks" and is basically the military tactic of ramming the pilot and aircraft into enemy warships. Tokko pilots are also known as kamikaze."
"Oh, I didn't know that." Hermione was surprised to learn about the meaning of this familiar term.
"Should I warn the Prophet and have them print a special issue? Hermione Granger doesn't know a fact." Draco's index and middle finger forming quotations in the air.
"Have you ever heard of kamikaze?" For a second, she stopped listening, to face him incredulously. Her fists dug at the waist.
"We're not discussing me." Draco ticked her nose.
"You can be one when you dive after a snitch heads down, well that is you being a kamikaze." Her pointer pushed against his chest.
"Mikiko said kamikazes crash their crafts into the enemy." The wizard pinched her on the side, and she squealed. In the meantime, the guide fell silent, and the couple admired the greenery sightseeing. Between mountain valleys covered in green carpets, through farmer's fields, and in the distance, small villages. Quite surprising especially for Hermione, who pictured Japan to be more cosmopolitan. After forty minutes they arrived at the museum.
The silence carried an aura of peace, the chatter from the bus falling silent without a request. Mikiko distributed an English leaflet and informed the group to return within an hour.
"They are honouring who exactly?" Draco felt again out of his depth.
"Remember Pearl Harbor?" They laced their fingers and followed the group into the museum, using the exchanged Yens to rent an audio guide. "Remember the quote' they won the attack but lost the war'?" Draco mimicked Hermione settling the wired earbuds around the neck. The witch proposed to do the outside first, as the room was pretty crowded with other tourists on top of their cruise group.
"Ah yes and the potion-bombs which destroyed cities." He scratched his blond scruff, following the path towards a wooden house. Inside, thin mattresses laid on the top of a long wooden bank on either side of the bunker, without any type of privacy or comfort. If one stretched his arm, they would knock on his neighbour easily. The beds were covered by white sheets and a flimsy green blanket and a thin pillow, above them a small suitcase resting on top of a wooden plank.
"Nothing like our luxurious rooms," The mattress was so thin that the wizard ruled it to be the most uncomfortable place ever.
"Far from it, in fact." Hermione saw the sign to set up their audio guide onto a specific chapter and showed Draco how to do the same, both listening intently to the narrating voices. As one of the witnesses spoke, Hermione swallowed a lump in her throat. The maid spoke of how the young pilots in their late teens or mid-twenties slept their last night in one of these bunkers, many of those pilot's pillows drenched in tears, in the morning.
Overwhelmed, Hermione left the bunker and strolled between a site full of squared stone lanterns. She had seen similar stone decorations at either side of the road towards the museum's entrance, under the rows of cherry blossom trees which were starting to bloom.
"The guide tells it's one for each fallen pilot." Draco read the leaflet in a low tone. The stone-carved lanterns depicted the typical Japanese curled corner roof. "About a thousand of them." He looked up and then around him and back to the flyer, "A thousand men about my age." Muggles are insane.
"Let's get inside." She had no answer to his remark. On their way, they stopped at one of the planes that were used for one of the Kamikaze invasions.
"If you ignore the purpose of one of these planes, I can imagine the thrill of flying one of these babies." The boy in him admired the craft. But expecting to learn the dark history behind the pilots, Draco held back on his enthusiasm.
"I'd rather have them use it for a Quidditch plane version, instead of their purpose." This museum was teaching them the other side of the war, one that many people often don't know or want to see.
They finally entered the museum, falling silent at the portraits of the Tokko pilots, "They were so young!" This fact was probably the one Draco found the hardest to accept. Although, Voldemort's puppets had also been quite young.
Strolling down through several rooms, they looked at two different fighter aircraft in decent shape and the third, a wreckage salvaged from the ocean missing parts and its tail. Their time didn't allow them to watch the documentaries shown in the audiovisual hall, alas. But in the history room, they studied the uniforms, the flags, reconnaissance pictures and log books from superior officers.
As the audio guide continued to narrate, the more they discovered about the young men. Most hoped that their sacrifice would bring prosperity to their families, or simply believed that they had no other choice. Yet, the last part of their visit affected them the worst. They and the rest of their group as it seemed. Preserved behind glass cases, countless farewell testaments and goodbye letters were exposed, written by the Tokkos and posted to their loved ones, before joining their suicide mission.
"Mum, I'm sorry for being a disobedient child. Please forgive me. I'm happy to go." Draco had to stop the audio guide for a second, upon hearing the translation a letter. Swallowing dry the lump stuck in his throat, he continued to listen. "I'm going to die on the sea of Okinawa. Even after my death, I'll defend my country, Japan." Followed by, "How many people will cry for me when I die?" It continued to translate, but Draco ripped off the earbuds, incapable of listening further.
"They thought their ultimate sacrifice was the right thing to do." The Slytherin whispered ten minutes later when Hermione finally exited the museum looking as devastated as he felt. "Young scared blokes knew they were going to die!" He felt an unknown rage rise in his chest, for the government of old men who decided to send those boys to death as the next best step to conquer a war.
Draco stopped at a statue of a Tokko, dressed in the pilot's last uniform. He reflected in silence, while Hermione squeezed his hand, lost in her own thoughts. I could have been that bloke, following someone's orders blindly, thinking my death would save my mother's life. Believing I had no choice, backed into a corner. He closed his eyes to gather some strength, taking a deep breath.
The return journey to Kagoshima city happened in absolute silence. None of the passengers spoke. All of them conscious that war has no winners.
-oOo-
Nearly upon arrival, Mikiko introduced the second destination, the Iso Gardens.
"The Iso Gardens, also known as Sengan-en is a Japanese style garden, overlooking Sakurajima volcano and Kagoshima's bay. It includes shrines, streams, ponds and a bamboo grove. It was constructed by a wealthy Daimyo clan, the Shimazu clan in 1658. In the centre, you'll see the Iso Residence, the main residence of the Shimazu clan and its interior is preserved the way it was used in the 1890s after its reconstruction."
It has something idyllic, Hermione enjoyed her first impression of the Daimyo garden quietly. It also brightened her spirits after the Peace Museum. Watching Draco's stance, it was also doing him good.
"We don't see this kind of landscaping at home." Draco voiced Hermione's following thought. "Look at the paved footpaths, the different heights and how it's oriented towards the volcano." Again, they were given free time to explore the gardens at will.
Walking hand-in-hand, the two strolled down the footpaths heading uphill or downward.
"Look at how the water flows," Draco marvelled at the way the waterfall bled into a pond, stones ingeniously placed to curve the water and force its flow below a stone bridge. He took several pictures, "Perhaps we can use it as inspiration for our own garden?"
The peaceful trickling of water added to the sense of tranquillity, "Create our zen corner?"
"Our what?" He straightened his back, after two more pictures of the ingenious way the bridge was supported.
"Our zen corner, a corner to feel peaceful and relaxed." She patiently explained while pushing him into movement. A few feet ahead they stood still at the Oniwa Shrine. The nearby plate described the shrine as a place to worship according to the Shinto religion. It stood proudly on the top of stone stairs, between several trees including a few cherry blossom trees.
Cautiously, Hermione climbed the stairs, stepping under the Torii gate formed by two vertical wooden posts and topped by a crosswise round beam, a smaller one a short distance below. Behind the passage stood the shrine that the Gryffindor would describe as a temple with typical Japanese curled roof corners. "I wonder how much the Shinto religion differs from the Buddhism." They curiously toured around the sanctuary building, yet due to the time constrictions, they couldn't explore it as much as they wanted.
"I don't think any of our wizarding books will contain any information." Religion was still something abstract to him. He didn't quite understand why Hermione had burned a candle in a Catholic church at Huatulco. In their wizarding world, they didn't pray to gods or divine beings. Along this cruise, however, he has encountered many examples of how Muggles do worship a higher power.
"No, you are right. I wonder if the ship contains an encyclopedia. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until we're back in the UK." It didn't escape her how meticulously the gardens were kept, "Look Draco, it's like they manicure the plants and trees."
"Don't expect the same from me, witch. We'll employ a house-elf to keep it neat." Draco added quickly, remarking the raised eyebrow, "Employed as in a free and paid elf, hold your horses, love. See it as a small version of your Perkins for the garden. And for the household. And maybe for cooking too."
"Not cooking." She poked his chest, "We'll cook for each other."
"I can't cook." He grabbed her by the waist and walked towards the exit, time was running out.
"We'll do more cooking workshops aboard then. I need to learn as much as you do, Harry can cook much better than me." In reality, she was a disaster behind the pots and pans, but Draco didn't need to know it. Yet.
-oOo-
"Excuse me, Miss Mikiko, can you explain to me the difference between Shinto and Buddhism?" Hermione approached their guide while waiting for the other passengers to assemble.
"Of course," The young guide bowed at the waist, "Both are thousands of years old. The Shinto religion is a spiritual ideology, where it is believed that the powerful deities -gods- live both in heaven and on earth. Buddhism comes from China and Korea, which means the Buddha doctrine literally. Many Japanese people practise both without restraints. Shinto is often the religion for the earthly matters, to pray for success and many weddings are hosted at a shrine. Buddhism is considered the religion for the spiritual, where you would go to pray for your ancestors and where the temples usually host funerals."
"Ah, surprising." Hermione nodded, impressed.
"Easier understood, you can say that Shinto has no founder, no script and the most important trait is purity. The shrines are used to enshrine Shinto deities." Draco followed the conversation with interest. In a way, Shinto was like their Wizard world. It had no exact founder, no script and it did follow the natural way, though it could be slightly a farther stretch from the truth. It was absolutely not like Buddhism if he understood Mikiko's further explanation. "Buddhism has a script, it was founded by Buddha and teaches how to reach enlightenment. His statue and other Buddhist deities are worshipped at temples."
Definitely not Buddhism. We don't worship statues, thought Draco until the Slytherin remembered how many had glorified the Dark Lord for a while. Thank Salazar we're no longer that stupid.
Facing the volcano and raising his face towards the sunlight, he allowed the peaceful aura to seep through his spirit. Tomorrow Nagasaki awaited, and he had heard that name before, so the chances were very high to see with his own eyes, the devastation left behind by wars. They should teach this at Hogwarts, open prejudiced eyes before they could do damage. Maybe father can suggest an obligatory trip…
-oOo-
Mikiko brought the group to the Furasato Food Village for their lunch break. A new first again for a wizard used to fine dining, a complete cultural shock as it were.
The Furasato Food Village consisted of a Japanese Style pub street. On both sides of the short alley, nearly twenty different food stalls to choose from, high wooden tables with stools outside against the doors.
"I advise you to taste from a few stalls instead of eating a big meal in one place." Mikiko tried to urge the group into experiencing the Japanese Yatai style of food. "Yatai means shop stand. You have one hour."
"I want to try the noodles, Draco." The broth aromas from the nearest stall woke up her hunger. She pointed at the picture with chicken and thick noodles and the man behind the counter poured into a ceramic bowl, a royal portion of flavourful broth over shredded chicken, green onions and sugar snap peas.
The bowl was quickly devoured between the two, Draco leaving the last spoon over to his witch, gentlemanly, "We must learn how to make this, love. It's a combination of soup and meat, with crunchy veggies. I love it."
Hermione couldn't agree more, "You choose the next dish." She let him guide her, slithering between the tables and other eating guests.
Draco stopped at a stall cutting tuna sashimi, "I loved that in Honolulu." He pointed at the salmon, the tuna and a white fish he didn't recognise. The Asian woman nodded and motioned them to sit at a table. From there they had an excellent view of the chef cutting evenly thin slices of fish. The tuna seemed to have seared skin.
The woman brought a wooden plate with several plates surrounding the bigger one with the sashimi on it. The side dishes consisted of shredded Daikon radish and green Shiso leaves, plus little bowls with soy sauce, wasabi paste and grated fresh ginger. In the end, she offered a pair of chopsticks.
"Be careful with the green paste, Draco." Hermione broke the chopsticks and tried to get the handle of it. Yet, catching one slice of sea brass was more difficult than ordering her broomstick up.
The same woman returned, took the sticks from Hermione and connected them with a rubber band, "Better?" The witch caught her slice quickly and gave the Japanese a thumbs up. "You too, sir?"
Draco handed over his pair, a light blush painting his cheeks. He thanked with a slight bow, "Thank you."
A silence fell between the couple, dipping the slices in the soy sauce and degustating the pure flavour of the raw fish, "Love, can we eat sushi back home? This is really delicious."
"Not in Wizarding London, but in the Muggle boroughs, probably closer to China Town in central London, yes." She took a tiny bit of the wasabi. She added a small cut of shiso leaves to it, as the plant lessens the overpowering taste of ingredients. Despite the shiso, she took a healthy sip of water right after, the wasabi at home was much less spicy than the genuine Japanese variety.
"A little bit hot?" Draco steered away from the wasabi but did enjoy the pepper-ish taste of freshly grated ginger. Then, he rolled a few strings of the radish, the crispy and juicy texture cooled off his tongue slightly.
"I dare you to try it." She bobbed with her chin at the bowl with the green paste.
"No, thank you." Instead, he stole the last slice of the tuna, dipped it in the soy and bit half of the portion, dumping the other half inside her mouth.
Pretty full, they didn't resist trying the Yakitori chicken skewers as the last dish, fresh out of the barbecue. The couple didn't even bother with looking for a table to sit, biting off the meat on the go.
"I like Japanese food." Draco cleaned his lips on the napkin. He only missed something sweet, but perhaps there was time to enjoy a tea after the last excursion stop.
"I like what I recognise, they can eat things that I will not taste even if offered thousands of galleons." Hermione dropped her wooden skewer in a trash can, muttering a tergeo on both their hands to clean the sticky feel of their skin. "They enjoy grasshoppers, for example."
"I'll be cross if you trick me into tasting insects!" The thought alone nauseated him instantly.
"I'm not that evil!" Hermione's face frowned, offended, "Unless you act like a git again." Suddenly, she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards a colourful food stall, "Oh, look!" On a hot baking plate, a man baked little dough balls. The smell was mouthwatering.
The man spoke in Japanese to Hermione, repeating the same words again. Thankfully Mikiko stood behind her, "He's asking how many Takoyaki you want."
"Is that how they are called?" Hermione stuck four fingers in the air, in the meantime.
"Yes, Takoyaki are sponge cake balls, you can have them with many tastes, he's doing the basic version." Mikiko explained, "You can have them also with matcha tea, for example."
While Hermione counted the necessary money, Draco accepted the boat-shaped bowl, finding to his great pleasure a thick dollop of chocolate sauce on top of the dough balls. His sweet tooth was getting satisfied after all. He slightly bowed again, "Thank you."
Mikiko directed them, "At the end of the road, you'll find the bus. We'll be leaving in twelve minutes."
The couple nodded. Hermione fished a ball from Draco's bowl, biting with a hand underneath her dessert. "These are so good."
"I'm so glad you feed my sweet tooth." The boy in him licked a stripe of chocolate sauce first before biting. Unaware however that he left a dot of sauce at the tip of his nose. Grinning, Hermione refrained from warning him straight away.
"I'm becoming an expert in the Draco Malfoy subject." Unabashedly, she licked her fingers clean. The two balls were devoured in no time. Draco's followed as shortly, the wizard taking a cue from her to also lick the remains from his digits.
Yet, he saw her dipping a finger in her mouth and approaching his face, "What are you doing?"
"Cleaning something on your face."
"Not with spit, you don't." Not even Narcissa used this approach when he was a toddler.
"Otherwise, I can lick your nose clean with my tongue, but I think the Japanese people will not appreciate such a display." By then, Hermione had grabbed his face and swiped away the dirty place. The finger entered her mouth, and she made a scene licking off the digit with her tongue.
"Allow me to return the favour later." His grey orbs darkened, arousal burning at the surface.
-oOo-
The second-to-last leg of their excursion was close by, in less than twenty minutes they exited the city and arrived at the Shiroyama Observatory. This was the hiking part of their tour ascending fifteen-hundred meters through gentle zigzag paths.
Through those switchbacks with a jungle feel coming from the masses of trees surrounding the hiking paths, they explored the lava fields. They arrived at the very top and admired the Sakurijama volcano from an outstanding point of view, it was releasing grey clouds of dust.
Nearly the entire group watched in alarm.
"Don't worry, that's almost a daily event. It might erupt for a little, but we are very safe." Mikiko's reassurance didn't soothe at all. Barely anybody was at ease. "Take as many pictures as you want, Sakurajima is one the most active volcanoes in Japan and erupts minorly many times a day. We are used to this." The guide giggled.
"Let us just take our pictures and descend, what do you think, Hermione?" Draco couldn't deny that the view was exceptional. Adding a smoking volcano to your background also had its advantages. The blond had taken none from Rabaul's eruption, it was far from his thoughts at the moment.
"I'm not opposed." Not only had they a great view over the volcano, but also the city was a landscape to admire. "Take a picture of the city also, please."
After a few moments, Draco realised that the distance between them and the volcano was of such an extent that the chance of them being caught in a second Rabaul event was minimal. He relaxed obviously and started to enjoy the surroundings, the lava traces and listening to a minor history lesson about the place. Their location was the site of a last samurai rebellion in the nineteenth century. They fight wars all over the place, in Merlin's name.
-oOo-
The very last stop before the end was at the ruins of the Tsurumaru Castle, originally constructed in the early seventeenth century for the Satsuma Family feudal lords, guarded by samurais. It was lost in a fire almost two centuries later, and it housed a museum inside.
Mikiko, however, told them that the time didn't allow for a visit inside the museum, the stop only happening so they could see the outside ruins.
Following the guide, Draco and Hermione explored the moat and its walls, but the excitement wasn't there. They were ruins, after all. "You can see what it must have been, but it's not much of a must-see place, is it?" He longed after a dive in the outside pool and to stretch his exhausted legs on a sunbed.
"Not really." Hermione shared his opinion. She giggled, "My thighs hurt, can you give me a massage tonight?"
"It comes at a cost." Slytherins never gave a thing for free.
"Always a Slytherin and a Malfoy, eh?" She rolled her eyes, climbing the stairs of the bus and sitting with a huff.
"You wouldn't want otherwise." The gleam in his eyes spoke volumes.