Embedded Files
We are trying to be busy bees now that the weather is warming up. For the Easter long weekend we went took a quick trip down to visit Kagoshima and Sakurajima! (above: view from the south side of Sakurajima)
Quick Geography Lesson
Where is Kagoshima?
There are 4 main islands that make up Japan:
Hokkaido - up north (Sapporo is here)
Honshu - the main island (Tokyo, Kyoto, Sendai, most Japanese cities you have heard of are here)
Shikoku - the smallest of the 4, tucked beneath Honshu
Kyushu - the westernmost and southernmost island
Kagoshima Prefecture is the southernmost prefecture in Kyushu. Its capital, Kagoshima City, is located centrally in the prefecture, directly across from Sakurajima Mountain.
Sakurajima is an active volcano, and as such it continues to change. During the last major eruption in 1914 the lava flows finally created a land route between Kyushu island and Sakurajima on the side opposite Kagoshima City. The island is home to a few thousand people, the majority of whom live in the town across from Kagoshima City.
Exploring Sakurajima
We spent all of Saturday exploring and cycling around Sakurajima. The ferry to the island runs very frequently, and is one of the few 24 hour ferries in Japan so it was very easy to get there and back. We began with a quick perusal of the museum at the information kiosk which explained the history and geology of Sakurajima. It provided some appreciated context, and then we rented our bicycles and headed off for the day.
The beginning of the ride followed the shoreline quite closely through town and was relatively flat, although we took some side streets and they immediately began sloping quite steeply upwards. After the town, it was nearly non-stop hills for the entire rest of the ride.
As we went around we stopped at the various observatories or on bridges to admire the volcano. It has multiple chutes, so unlike Mount Fuji or a typical textbook diagram of a conical volcano, this one has a different appearance depending on your viewing direction. From the east and west you can see multiple peaks, and it looks like a small mountain range, but from the north or south, at the right angle it appears as a symmetric cone.
(panorama above: view from the west, photo above: view of Sakurajima from the east, taken on a bridge over a lava-redirection canal)
For lunch we first stopped to see a Tori gate that had been buried by the lava during the last major eruption in 1914, and across the street there happened to be a small ramen shop. They only had a single item on the menu whose name means "a random assortment of vegetables", and it was DELICIOUS. There was so much food I had no hope of finishing it all, but the broth was tasty, it had 4 or 5 different kinds of sea food, and just as many vegetables. If it was easier to visit we would definitely go back again just for the food!
Additionally, because it is the currently the most active volcano in Japan, Sakurajima is almost constantly covering everything in a very fine volcanic dust. The locals have specific trash bags to dispose of it that were piled by the road every so often in organized pyramids awaiting collection day. In general the roads were clean so it wasn't an issue, but there were small piles in hard to clean corners or beside walking paths. It was almost soft to the touch, and I would describe it as slippery. When renting our bikes we were told to be careful with our speed and to avoid it when riding.
At one point I intentionally rode over a very small patch that had accumulated in a dip by the side of the road. I wasn't going too fast, and I was going in a straight line so I figured it would be alright. I think the particles of dust are so fine that they couldn't support the weight of the bike, so instead of my tires going on top of the patch as I expected, it shifted unexpectedly and it felt like my tires slip. Thankfully it was a small patch and I didn't fall off, but I did take a moment afterwards to text Jesse (who had stopped to take some photos with his drone) that they were really quite serious when they said to avoid any piles of dust.
After wrapping up the ride, we spent a little while relaxing in the free foot baths in the park behind the visitor centre, before taking a short walk along a path by the ocean. There was no one else out walking, so we had a lovely time chatting, and watching the local birds try and catch their supper. Jesse also managed to fly his drone out to a lighthouse off the coast and get a really neat picture.
Finally, as the sun was going down we took the ferry back to Kagoshima to wrap up our very long but enjoyable day.
Captions - above left: Drone picture from the west of Sakurajima while hovering over a sand bar, middle left: a path at one of the observation points, above right: the foot baths looking towards Kagoshima City, below left: the spot where Sakurajima joined the mainland in 1914, allowing the highway to connect without a bridge (Sakurajima is out of frame to the left).
Google Sites
Report abuse