Sakurajima Volcano

|

Sakurajima volcano was just a short ferry ride from where I was staying in Kagoshima and only cost 160 yen one way. Despite the recent bad weather at the start of July, It was meant to be a super sunny day. Sakurajima was an amazing island with a community of several thousand people living right next to one of the worlds most active volcanoes

I wasn’t too sure how to get around the island; I had been hoping for a little more guidance and signs when I got off the ferry but they weren’t as immediately apparent as elsewhere in the country. Before arriving, I’d been planning on trying to walk to the first view point and go from there. I soon realised the challenge I was in for. It was only about a 1.5k walk but in the blistering heat I was exhausted when I arrived. and realised walking all the way up the volcano to the other viewing point wasn’t going to happen. I found some information about a bus that did a tour of this part of the island for 500 yen for the day and decided that would be the better option.

On the route, the bus offered to stop at different placed, one of which was a station about preventing mudslides. I decided to hop off and check it out; i didn’t realise it was on the ‘B’ route which meant I wouldn’t be able to be picked up for an hour but thought than meant there would be a lot to do… there wasn’t and I was done in about 15 minutes. I decided from there to go up to the main viewing point and not stop anywhere else along the way.

At the top there were good views although it was a little cloudy. After getting some photos we went down again.

There was a dinosaur park which was listed as something to do so I went for a look, it was a bit of a climb up there and there were some nice views but the dinosaurs weren’t all that impressive. I then wandered over to the visitor centre (where I should have started) and looked around there after first visiting the hot feet spas to relax my feet – they were so hot I couldn’t keep my feet in them.

The clouds had cleared over most of the top of the volcano although vapor was still coming out so I decided to do another loop for a few more photos and then got the ferry back. I’d been hoping to experience an eruption as they were pretty regular (about 50 year to date) but unfortunately wasn’t lucky enough for this. It was a good visit, with the bus I took I think a 1/2 day would have been enough time there, I found out after I got my pass there was a bigger tour around the island for about 2100 yen and think that would have probably been a better day trip although I felt I saw what I wanted to anyway.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: