Miyazaki, the sun-blessed land, better serving tourists despite new difficulties

Dec. 26, 2013

Miyazaki, the sun-blessed land, better serving tourists despite new difficulties

Miyazaki, which occupies the southeastern part of Kyushu, one of the four main islands of Japan, used to be called “Hyuga” or “Himuka,” which literally means the land facing the sun. The sun comes up from the horizon and shines on the land, whose 400-kilometer roughly straight coastline faces the Pacific to the east.

The coasts have diversified features. Not only sand beaches but beaches with rocks of fantastic shape also can be found. Watchful visitors may find marches and inlets, some of them known as places of rest for migratory birds on their travel between Siberia and Southeast Asia.

Miyazaki was always high on the rankings of favored destinations for honeymooners until a few decades ago. Various nice foods are available and beautiful natural spots and historical sites welcome visitors in warm weather, but diversified tastes made it just “one of many” tourist spots. To be worse, Miyazaki Prefecture experienced a series of unfavorable incidents in the past few years. The spread of foot-and-mouth disease, an infectious disease, seriously damaged the prefecture’s cattle raising industry. This was followed by a bird flu epidemic. A mountainous tourist area in the southern part of the prefecture had to endure bad days following a volcanic eruption.

As the adversity has come to be stabilized, local people are pinning hopes on the attractiveness of new tourist spots. Built halfway up a steep hill facing the Pacific is Sun Messe Nichinan, a theme park which is known for precise replicas of giant “moai” stone statues. The facility, opened in 1996, attracted 2 million visitors in the first 13 years. The theme park is becoming even more popular for tourists from outside the prefecture.

The mysterious moai statues, which feature long faces and long ears, were built by ancient Polynesians on a solitary island in the distant sea and they became known to westerners in the 18th century. Then, more than 800 moai statues were found across the island, most of them buried under the ground. Polynesians called the island Rapa Nui, but it was known as Easter Island in the West.

The seven Ahu Akivi moai replicas, about 5.5 meters high and weighing 18 to 20 tons, stand in line at Moai Square in the theme park. An episode leading up to the replica construction is back to the 1990s, when a Japanese team helped rebuild 15 Ahu Tongariki moai statues on the island. In exchange for their three years of service, an association of Rapa Nui elders and islanders permitted Japan to build moai replicas for the first time and only once in the world.

The Nichinan coast and Moai Square face Easter Island, which belongs to Chile, right across the Pacific. The name of the stone statues is said to consist of “mo” which means “future” and “ai” which means “live,” together meaning “living in the future.” The moai statues will keep standing there with their eyes straight up to the sky, warmly welcoming visitors and encouraging local people while reminding them of the sun-blessed nice location.