WTF?

I know it's a little hard to see because it was taken on a rainy night with a camera phone, but...

it's a hummer... in Omuta...?

Kagoshima

Saturday, September 16th, the first day of a three day weekend, Lynn and I decided to drive down to Kagoshima. Surpassing my own expectations for posting pictures in a timely fashion, I actually had them all edited and uploaded by the beginning of October, but then I became hellaciously busy and have been unable to write any accompying text. But now I finally have a bit of a breather.

The drive to Kagoshima took about 3 hours and was literally a straight shot. No problems. Here's a map for those who don't know their Japanese geography.

{blogger is being stupid. I'll get the map up later.}


As we approached Kagoshima, we saw some unusual highway animal crossing signs. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture. (Gosh, Lynn. How hard is it to stick your head out the window at 100km/hr and get a decent picture? Really.) It looked like the middle sign on here. We asked at a rest stop, and it turned out to be a picture of a tanuki. Remember Tanuki Mario? It's not just something imagined by Nintendo.

Once we reached Kagoshima, we took the ferry over to Sakurajima (literally cherry island), a volcano that sits in the middle of the bay.

Here's Lynn and me on the ferry with Sakurajima in the background,


and here's a shot of the island itself.


Sakurajima isn't technically an island. It's a peninsula, but it used to be an island. A volcanic eruption spewed matter into one side of the bay forming a connection to the eastern side. To see as much as we could, we drove around the perimeter of what used to be the island, making a bunch of stops along the way.

Here is the Hakamagoshi-Karasujima Lava Trail. We walked around for about an hour before deciding that, lovely as it was, it was just a bunch of rocks, and it was quite hot out.


These were just off the trail. Technically, we weren't supposed to climb down there, but the sign was only in Japanese, and I tend to selectively forget how to read.



Good shot of the mountain from the Yunohira Observatory.


Sakurajima is famous for it's enormous daikon (Japanese radish), supposedly due to the rich, volcanic soil. That is one big radish.


This is the Kurokami buried torii (shrine gateway). It was covered by a volcanic eruption.


A view of Kagoshima city on the ferry back from Sakurajima.


Back in Kagoshima we visited Reimeikan, a museum built upon castle ruins. The front entrance shown here is all that's left of the original structure.


Last, before heading back fo Fukuoka, we went to Isoteien Gardens. It was very attractive, but their claim of year-round flowers was a blatant lie. I don't think we saw a single bloom. The gardens are part of an old estate. Here's one point of interest: the pewter-roofed gate.


Nice shot of the gardens.


Scampering amongst the rocks all throughout the garden were bright red crabs about the size of my palm. I was fascinated because I don't think I've ever seen crabs outside of a beach or marsh before. I've certainly never seen that color red. I managed to get a few pictures. They're a little blurry, but it's not like I could convince the crabs to hold still for me.


Me feeding fish at the gardens. Thanks to Lynn for the pic.


Sadly this fun-filled day had a price. I believed all day that I had forgotten my sunscreen only to find upon arriving home that it was in my purse all along. Regardless, a sunny day without sunscreen + me = bright red.


That was all for Kagoshima. It was a very full day, but we managed to see everything we wanted to, and we got back home before 10pm.