Kagoshima

I arrived in Kagoshima late and I was worried that the ferry to take me to Sakurajima would be closed for the night. To my surprise there was a fireworks festival that night at the port! Instead of being closed the port was covered with thousands of people. The ferry was running all night, so I sat down to enjoy the show. The fireworks shattered my eardrums again. Big fireworks. And close. These people know how to put on a show.

The Sakurajima YH turned out to be a little boring and the hot spring onsen was under repair so I switched to the Cafe and Guest House Garammasala. Not boring, this place... The couple that own the place are delightful. We sit on the patio in the evenings and watch the fireworks shows (there is a small show on Sakurajima every night this month) and drink some beer and listen to some Okinawan guitar.

Sakurajima used to be an island but they had a huge eruption here, (biggest in the world in the 20th century they tell me) that connected the island with the mainland. They had another big eruption in the `40s and nothing major since then. I thought it was funny that they built the youth hostel above the Kyoto University Observation Station. Nothing like sleeping on an active volcano...


Random collection of photos I took here... I really like how the photo of Sakurajima turned out. Monks in the Tenmonkan area asking for money by not moving for an hour at a time and ringing a little bell once every couple seconds. Experimenting with some long exposure night photos. Kids playing with these gigantic beetles the size of mice. Apparently they keep them as pets here... New friends at an artist collective.