April 10 - Kagoshima, Japan

 We were able to change our tour to Volcanic Sakurajima so our tour left at 8:30, and again Steve and Leona were with us.  It was about a 30 minute drive to a large car ferry that we just drove right onto.  There's a ferry every 20 minutes running 24/7.  The volcano is on the island of Sakurajima where about 3,500 people live, the majority are over 60 according to our guide who lived there until she married and moved to the mainland. Her parents still live there.  The population has been declining on the island over the years.  There aren't any high schools and most workers have to commute to the "mainland".  The ferry takes about 15 minutes and I think the fare for a single adult was around $1, if I was reading the posted prices correctly.

This sign was posted  number of times in the cruise terminal

This is the ferry taken through the tinted bus window.

This is a play area for the children

A cafe offering hot ramen that smelled wonderful

The seating area

Many bathrooms here have this child seat right in the stall with the toilet.  Very convenient for mom.  By the way, the tile looks dirty, but that was just the pattern.  Not the best choice for a bathroom.

Most public toilets have a bidet attachment.  I really miss our bidet at home, but I just don't want to use on in a public toilet.

I like how the chairs are chained down, for rough weather, presumably.

The volcano

People leave coins as a donation to the volcano gods.  We left one so we would get out of here before it blows again!  It "erupts" many times a month, but the eruptions are usually just steam with some ash and occasionally rocks.

These shelters are all over the island in case of serious eruptions.

It's a little hard to see, but the white things on the plant on the right are bags that are put over the loquat fruit to protect them from too much rain.

Jan and Tom were on the bus that pulled onto the ferry right next to us.

These tiny boxy cars are all over.  It seems that every car brand has one.  Here it is next to a regular American-sized minivan for comparison,

We got back in time for lunch at Prime 7 and Leona suggested that we get the shuttle into town and check out the 100 Yen store, so we did.  It was just like our Dollar Stores and we picked up a few things.

These street markings are all over Japan.  I think they're for the blind.  My guess is that the straight lines indicate a long straight stretch and the dots indicate a change like an intersection or a curb.

Mt. Sakurajima from a different vantage point.

We had to make 2 teams again at Trivia and the team I was on won 1 point.  Michael's was out of the money.  Leona brought dried shrimp heads that she had bought somewhere on a whim.  They had to be the worst things I've ever eaten and Leona agreed that they were going into the trash.  

There was another send-off by a group of drummers who were really good.  It looked like high schoolers again.  And there were a bunch of older greeters at the terminal.  I bet they are there whenever a ship comes in.  They enthusiastically welcomed us and waved flags and cartoons.

We had dinner again at Pacific Rim with Steve/Leona and Jan/Tom.  Delicious again. We didn't get a picture tonight, but here's one from last night with Phil and Carol.