Selling かき氷 (kakigōri)

I moved to the Moon Garam Masala Guest House in Sakurajima and the owners from Okinawa have adopted me. Riding in the back of the truck with the block of ice and guitar I get a personal tour of Sakurajima. The owners of the guest house, Funky Amamori and Jinko-chan, supplement their income during the summer selling kakigori. Back home we call them snow cones. They have an antique, cast-iron ice shaver that they toss in the back of the truck with a cooler full of ice and fruit syrups. They drive me around the island selling kakigori to fishermen and kids on the beach. I realize they are using me for the novelty of it. An American riding around in the back of a truck draws plenty of questions and stares... But for me it is a free open-air tour of the island complete with blue-Hawaii ice and guitar music when we stop. Plus it converts to free beer and dinner when we get back to the guesthouse because now I'm "staff". We stopped and did some fishing at dusk. I didn't catch a thing, but Jinko-chan caught enough for dinner!

Some photos from the day. The o-torii gate is 3 meters tall, 2 meters were buried in the eruption of 1914. Big eruption that connected the island with the mainland but they still talk about it like an island. Good view of the peak, usually obscured by clouds; you can barely see plumes of smoke. All the trees are the same size here... We also caught a poisonous puffer fish we had to throw back. They serve it in some of the fancy restaurant that are certified. Apparently it makes your mouth numb, I have yet to try it.