30 May 2014
We were in Sakurajima for the dinosaur park and Kagoshima for the 4-hour ferry to Yakashima (aka Princess Mononoke Island). Staying here another day wasn’t in the plan, but we enjoyed visiting with the local cats and oyster digging. This area was very obviously not a tourist attraction area and that fit our mood perfectly, since we really wanted to know Japan.
Sakurajima
As we left our hill top observatory home we climbed atop dinosaur’s and I found a lion that I climbed upon. We had fun taking pictures of each other before departing…we then raced off to the ferry as we found we were running a bit behind schedule.
Kagoshima
We were the first off the ferry, and we ran/walked fast, Ashlynn ran most of the way ahead of me to try and catch the ship to Yakushima…but true to form the vessel was departing from Kagoshima RIGHT ON TIME (@8:30 AM) and we were too late. After catching our breath and cooling down a bit from the quick trek we made our way to a boardwalk where we bought ice cream then went to a man made stream, took off our shoes and soaked our feet while eating our ice cream. Even at this early time we were looking for shade and cool water. We later found out there was a designated place to soak your feet…oh well. We enjoyed what we had, and had gotten use to being stared at, so thought nothing of it, in this instance.
We decided to stay the day locally and CATCH the ferry the next day. We went over to the Kagoshima Aquarium where they were housing 3 dolphins in a man made canal where the public can observe them for free. We waited till they did a small show and feeding. I think both of us were more captivated by these 3 dolphins outside the Aquarium than anything they would have had on the inside. We loved them!
Sakurajima
After the dolphin’s we were back on the ferry to Sakurajima to purchase lunch from the local supermarket and then headed down to the beach and set our packs down in a Gazebo with one sleeping cat. As we pulled our food out of the hot plastic containers to eat we were surrounded by 3 more cats, and the sleepy one was awake and begging with the rest. We enjoyed there presence and after eating the lion’s share of our food we treated each of them to a small treat.
We then headed down to the shoreline and some pools of water where we could observe the creatures and critters trapped in them. Ashlynn dug out a oyster shell, sacrificing one shoe to the depths of the pool of oyster’s home. She banged a rock into it until it opened up and we examined it’s insides out of curiosity and for a possible pearl. No such luck 🙁 but found it’s tentacle things that hook him to a rock very interesting. As the sun lowered we made our way back to the mainland and hung our home across from the boardwalk…so we were sure to catch the 8:30 ferry! Plus we could fall asleep to the music played by a very happening restaurant, that we decided to eat at just for that experience. We didn’t end up eating out that night since we were tired, but have it notated for when we return another time.
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