Kagoshima

Kagoshima is a city located along a huge bay on the south side of Kyushu, the third-largest of Japan’s four main islands. It is dominated by Sakurajima, an active volcano that sits in the bay. At one time Sakurajima formed an island in the bay, but a 1914 eruption connected it to the peninsula to the east. The volcano is “gently active,” meaning it erupts regularly but in low doses.

We had an excursion set for the morning to take us over to Sakurajima. The bus used the ferry to take us over to the “island” (which isn’t really an island since it’s connected on the opposite side, but from the Kagoshima side it may as well be) and then we drove up to the “observatory.” This wasn’t much, really, just a path along the slope of the volcano. It was a pretty area, forested with pines and giving a nice view of the harbor. But there wasn’t anything else and we didn’t learn a lot about the volcano itself. And that was it for the excursion.

Fortunately we were given the opportunity to walk off the ferry when we got back to Kagoshima. We did that and walked into town to see what it looked like. The Oceania shuttle stop was near a “mall,” which wound up being similar to the arcade we enjoyed in Nagasaki. We went there in search of some lunch and found an Indian food restaurant that had vegetarian options (Japanese food, at least that generally offered in restaurants, isn’t super vegetarian-friendly). Lunch turned out to be excellent and ample! Japan has a reputation for being expensive, but I think that is focused on Tokyo. Our lunch came out to under $40 US for all four of us, and we couldn’t eat it all. I’d call that a deal.

After lunch we wandered the mall, coming across a large open library that was really nice. The boys were intrigued by Japanese books that are printed the “wrong way around,” with columns being read top to bottom and right to left. After a bit more exploring we headed back to the shuttle stop.

Our departure time had been moved up from 7:00 to 5:30, meaning all-aboard was now at 5:00 instead of 6:30. We headed out to deck 10 at 5:00 to see the send-off performance by a Japanese drum quartet. They entertained us for 30 minutes, at which time we became aware that we were still waiting for two passengers to get back to the ship. The quartet had played through their show, and now vamped while we all waited for the latecomers. Finally at 5:40, 40 minutes past all-aboard time, they showed up. They were greeted with three blasts from the ship’s horn. Quite a walk of shame with all the assembled passengers looking out from verandas and open decks. I don’t know if this couple missed the announcement about the shift in departure time or just got hung up somewhere, but oof.

Our walk around town and our nice lunch made up for a very “meh” excursion in Kagoshima. Saturday is a sea/school day, then we get one more day in Japan, at Ishigaki.Read more