Sakurajima + band contest

Yesterday we went to Sakurajima, the active volcano located close to Kagoshima. My host brother Ryotaro was participating in a band contest with his marching band from school there, so we were going to see that first.

We took the boat over to Sakurajima. It was pretty windy, as demonstrated by my host father and Momo:

Sakurajima as viewed from the boat

The band contest... Well, if you imagine a combination of "the Nutcracker" (especially the part where the soldiers are fighting the mice), a bit of the 17th of May and a hint of His Majesty the King's Guards Band, and you have an idea of what it looked like. Both elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools participated. It was really impressive! I thought they played really well too, without being an expert on that.

Ryotaro's band (he plays the drums, dad!).

Careful, or you might step on them! You'd never notice... "Smurfer løper ikke fort, så tramp dem ned og tørk dem bort..."

After Ryotaro's band had finished playing, we went up to an observation point close to Sakurajima to take some pictures and get a better view of the volcano. It was really beautiful! There was also some information on Sakurajima around there, which was an interesting read. You could also see a great overview of Kagoshima city from the observation point.

My host family and me in front of Sakurajima

Me with Kagoshima city in the background. (Because, let's face it, I'm more important!)

After buying another cellphone strap at the tourist shop by Sakurajima (a phone strap with Sakurajima's ashes in it, no less!), we went down to see a famous torii gate (Japanese gates found at entrances to shrines) that was covered in ashes during the massive eruption in 1914. Now only the top of the torii gate is visible, although it is 3 meters tall!

Torii gate

This poster explained how the torii gate looked before the eruption and what you're now seeing.

The shrine - I got to put a coin in here and do the whole clapping-and-bowing-thing, which was fun!