We used the new and incomplete Tsubame Shinkansen train route to travel from Kumamoto down to Kagoshima. Although efficient, clean and fast, it's a journey in a dark tunnel punctuated by all-too-brief flashes of lush green countryside. Maybe the ordinary local rail route would have been nicer.
The seventh day, then, brought us to Kagoshima City, overshadowed by Sakurajima. Sakurajima was once an island, but due to the eruptions of its resident active volcano, Minamidake, it joined the mainland regardless of what the mainland thought about the whole thing.
Sadly, once again, the weather was against us and it was impossible to get a clear shot of Sakurajima and the column of smoke that rises daily from the volcano. Our hotel did offer a nice view of Kagoshima, and if the weather had been more forgiving, we would have had a few more impressive photos to show.
On Sakurajima, we joined a sightseeing tour, because the only other real option is to rent a car and we didn't have enough time to warrant that. The above is a picture the sightseeing tour guide took for us from the Yunohira observatory, the closest you can get to the peaks of Sakurajima. The view is somewhat obscured by mist and cloud, but it was still pretty impressive to look at it when we were there. Just trust us on this!
At this point, however, we were becoming increasingly concerned about Typhoon Nida. It was coming fast up on Japan, and closing on Kyushu and we weren't sure if we would be able to travel to the last stop on our trip. We watched the news avidly, hoping that someone would be able to tell us whether the typhoon was going to descend on Japan or pass us by. A nervous night.
A few days after this photo was taken, Sakurajima erupted.