Sharon has been identifying Kagoshima as “Marshall’s Day” for a few months now. If a port involves a train, or a cave, or a volcano, we know it’s going to be a good day for him. Today, we visited the volcano of Sakurajima, on an island just east of Kagoshima. Our tour was from a company we’ve never used before; Shore Excursions Asia, and they met us at the cruise terminal with an 18-person bus.

Kagoshima has a population of 584K, and is a regional commercial center, with an economy centered on light manufacturing, tourism and commercial fishing. On the night of June 17, 1945, the 314th bombardment wing of the Army Air Corps (120 B-29s) dropped 809.6 tons of incendiary and cluster bombs destroying 2.11 square miles of Kagoshima. Kagoshima was targeted because of its largely expanded naval port as well as its position as a railway terminus.

We headed to the ferry terminal to catch a ride to the island. Little did we know that the ferry was going to carry us, and our bus, and two other larger buses, and a bunch of trucks and cars too. This was great fun to drive on, and then get off the bus and roam the ferry, for the 20-minute ride. Sakurajima Island has a population of just a few thousand residents, with a number of schools, shrines, and shops. Because of the proximity of the active volcano, children go to school each day with helmets, in case of a large explosion. As we drove around the island, we saw many concrete shelters where residents would be instructed to go to.

Eventually, we made it to the Kirishima-Kinkowan National Park and piled off the bus to visit one of the many viewing spots. Sakurajima, one of Japan’s most active volcanoes (approx. 800 small eruptions yearly), sits at 3665 ft. There are lava fields all over the island, in fact, in January 1914 following a massive volcanic eruption known as the Taishō eruption, massive lava flows from the eruption filled in the narrow strait separating the island from the mainland, making the island a peninsula.

At the Visitors Center, we were able to enjoy a warm foot bath from water heated by local thermal springs. It was so enjoyable sitting there and viewing the mountain. After a return to the mainland on the ferry, we visited a historic shopping center in Kagoshima; Tenmonken. This large facility boasts 12 covered arcades, each with a slightly different design. We didn’t have enough time to see them all but we enjoyed a few before making our way back to the bus and then back to the port.

Later in the day, Sakurajima decided to put on a show and erupted into the sky. We missed the whole thing as we were in the city, but several ship mates were able to capture the eruption, and we thank them for their photo contributions to this post.

As we were preparing to sail away, a very talented local middle school band played big band music and Disney favorites. Good golly they were fantastic and the entire starboard side of the ship got a real performance. Hundreds of residents came out to send us off, waving and yelling their greetings. One little boy kept yelling “bye bye” while the whole ship yelled “bye-bye” back. Sharon had tears running down her face and Marshall got choked up too. We’ll never forget the lovely spirit of this town.

Tomorrow: Kochi, Japan

Recommended: Shore Excursions Asia were wonderful to work with. Contact Felix at sales2@shoreexcursions.asia. For more information, shoreecursions.asia.