Kagoshima, Japan

#Kagoshima  #Japan #hollandamerica #japancruise #​Sakurajima

Our next stop was the lovely port of Kagoshima. After having spent several days visiting towns, we decided it would be a nice change to catch the ferry over to the island of Sakurajima.
After catching the shuttle bus into tow, we made our way to the ferry terminal and were surprised to find out how cheap a return ticket was. Getting on to the ferry early, we managed to get a good seat with a superb view of the volcano as we crossed over. At this time, it was quite dull and there was a lot of cloud around the volcano on the island.

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On arrival we were undecided whether to go for a walk along the coastline or catch the hop on hop of bus around the island. We decided to catch the bus although there was a long wait for it to arrive. The bus was already full, but at the first stop even more people got on with nobody getting off. We were going to get off to explore but seeing the queues of people at every stop, waiting to get on, we decided that we couldn't risk this. it would have meant we would never be able to catch the next bus and still complete the circuit in time to return to our ship. We now know how sardines feel as people were pushing on from every doorway at the stops!
The clouds hadn't lifted so, as well as being squashed, there was little to see apart from one set of sculptures on the way round. 
Eventually, we returned to catch the ferry back, although I did treat myself to a lava ice cream before setting off.

Arriving back at the ship, we were delighted to see that the weather had improved and we had a short walk along the shore. Here at last we finally saw the volcano in all it's glory. I decided to do digital sketches showing it in the morning and evening as a memory of this port.

Although the day was a bit disappointing, the send off on our departure from port was special as a group of costumed drummers waved us off.