Sakurajima

We had to change hotels, even though the ultra-cheap one we were at last night was quite nice. We had only booked one night, not sure if we'd stay on in Kagoshima, and they were full up for this evening, so most of the morning was spent searching for a new place. We found a very nice hotel in the middle of the "happening" part of the city for only ¥8000 including breakfast and the requisite internet. Things are cheaper here in Kyuushu than in the north. Unfortunately, we couldn't check in officially until 3PM (normal in Japan), so we left our luggage with them and set off to find some food and make plans.

We stopped at the very Japanese-sounding bakery "Vie de France", a national chain, mostly because they had free wifi. While eating, we decided on heading out to the very active volcanic island, Sakurajima, and I was confronted with an unpleasant surprise. My "Angel Soft" pastry (apple and cream filled pastry), was very light and fluffy. The reason, as it turned out was

May I have some filling with that air?

it was pretty much hollow. There was filling, and it was "Angel Soft", but it was quite a disappointment!

So, on to Sakurajima, which erupted no less than 1,300 times last year and already has over 300 this year. This is a place where they make the kids wear helmets to school, in case an eruption occurs on their morning commute. Eruptions are usually not very severe, and only blow a little dust in the air, sometimes not even noticeable. It actually erupted twice yesterday, enough that they could notice over there, but we didn't see anything across the bay in Kagoshima. That said, it is a dangerous place to be, if the southern peak, Minamidake, decides to blow. Fortunately, they are good enough at detecting eruptions that the last major one, in 1914, only killed 2 people. So we were pretty secure in being two of the more than 1.8 million people that visit the island every year. It's quite a sight.

View from the shore by the "lava flow" from the last major eruption, almost 100 years ago

100 years later, and the whole area that was covered in lava is still black, rocky and stretches for miles

After much walking around, we stopped at the local "足湯"(foot onsen), a public hot spring that they channeled through a park. You wash your feet at a spigot, then soak them in the naturally flowing hot water.

Shaving really cut down on the wind resistance. I'm 25% faster now.

It was really quite relaxing and a nice way to end the afternoon. On the way back, we passed signs for the great Rainbow Beach.

When we got there:

The only 200 ft of sand that wasn't covered by the lava flow

It was exceptionally underwhelming. I can just imagine in the summer 1000 Japanese with big umbrellas trying to fit down there.

One of the things Sakurajima is known for is its very large Daikon radishes. By large, I mean basketball sized radishes. Supposedly it has something to do with the volcanic rock, but since everything seems to die around the lava, I'm not sure about the claim. But the Daikon really are huge

22 Kg(45 lbs) of radish. We saw several of these around town.

Back in Kagoshima, we took a walk down another one of those nice open air shopping arcades and looked for some dinner. At the very end of the arcade, we found a little Ramen place, and were not disappointed.

Loose translation: A Boatload of Vegetables Ramen

Corn Ramen. Maruchan, eat your heart out!

And, of course, we had to find a good cafe for dessert.

They called it "Omelet". We called it a waffle ice cream and fruit sandwich.

On the way back, we found more wonderfully bad Engrish signs (we're saving those for a separate post. The further from Tokyo you get, the worse the English gets), and the mascot for a game arcade, who looked like a cross between Bert and Ernie and Stewie

Should The Childrens Television Workshop sue?

Tomorrow, we head even further south to Aoshima, a sub-tropical island, where we'll spend a night before heading back to civilization and Beppu (the Las Vegas of Japan) where they are having an Onsen festival this weekend.