C still hasn't got over his fascination for volcanoes so we came south to Kagoshima to try and see Sakurijama, supposedly one of the world's most active. The signs say over 570 eruptions this year, something like 511 of them serious. Well, we saw a little bit of smoke on day one and the next two days the damn thing was covered in cloud and there was enough rain to put out the volcano forever. One can't climb the volcano as there is too high a risk of being hit by rock, or something. Actually, I can believe that's true since all the kids on the island wear helmets to school to protect them.
We have notched up two more onsens for our bath-post. The first entailed a 10km walk in the rain, which some may think is pushing it. I'm tempted to agree but it was nice to walk. This onsen had an outdoor pool but is only enterable for those wearing yakutas. I have no idea why swimming costumes aren't acceptable but I suspect all answers would have something to do with the fact that the pool is also a shinto shrine. Why not double them up? Makes perfect sense to me. I felt a bit like Ophelia as I waded into the pool, then I just felt silly. C thought I looked like I was entering a 'wet yakuta' contest. I thought he looked like he'd escaped from the lunatic asylum.
The second onsen was another sand bath - more fun as the sand was hotter (we actually cooked a banana in it) and we were on the beach, not inside. We're definitely onsen-ed out now. The beach with the sand bath is so hot it actually steams and the sea is too hot to swim in.
Our second night in Kagoshima we found ourselves drinking the dangerous mix of beer and sochi (local brew) with the owner of our hotel and a french guy. After dragging us to a bar the hotel owner stumbled off in to the night (having met his wife I doubt he's allowed out too late), leaving us to mop up our drinks in the company of an extremely drunk Japanese man. It was just hilarious watching drunk Japanese man dribble at the french guy who then had to translate into french for us to understand and answer his questions. There wasn't a whole lot of understanding going on - speed of foreign languages and beer will do that.
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