Kagoshima, Japan - ERUPTION 2 of 2

Our time on the active volcano Mt. Sakurajima, which is not just 3,500 feet above the bay but 31 square miles, 32 miles in circumference and 3664 feet high was a unique experience.

Smoke and ash are seen almost every day, sometimes along with louder mini-eruptions. They consider an eruption when the cloud of smoke raises 1,000 feet in the air. This day we were told it looked close to 1,000 but they can’t tell until the reports come in in subsequent days. Either way, we were safe …no lava flowing past us! The last major eruption was in 1914 where 3 billion tons of lava poured out and was so massive that when the lava hardened it bridged the bay connecting an island to Osumi Peninsula. The Arimua Observatory was the place you start your journey up and which was built on a volcanic hill created by another eruption in earlier times.

We enjoyed this interesting excursion to a volcano and our third stop in Japan. When we got back to the ship and got on just before we were leaving we found out that there had been an “outage” on the ship, no elevators and everything running off of generators. This only delayed us a few hours as they corrected the problem and tested it. One of the interesting things was that the welcoming committee that had been at the dock from early in the day, insisted on staying until we left. They kept the red carpet rolled out, played music and even danced as the last few greeters held out until we pulled away. That’s hospitality!Read more