Kyushu Day 4 - Kirishima - Kagoshima

 Great scenery from our room early in the morning.

  

After several minutes, smoke starts to spew out from Sakurajima! 

Breakfast is buffet style, you can choose from a wide selection of Japanese or western.

 This is the best find from Kirishima. It's a kind of miso paste where you can eat directly, goes well with piping hot rice, meats or you can do a cucumber dip with it.

Official check out time is 10am. As there was still time before the bus departs, we went to the nearby market to have a look. 

There were some stalls selling steamed corn, sweet potatoes, even steamed eggs. 

The steam coming out from the basket is all natural steam from the onsen as Kirishima is an onsen resort. 

We were a tad too early in Kyushu before the Autumn leaves started turning red, and as Kirishima onsen resort is up on the mountains, this was the only place where we caught a glimpse of Autumn leaves. 

I just couldn't resist taking more photos of the autumn trees while waiting for the bus to come.

More beautiful scenery along the bus ride back to Kirishima Jingu station. Can you spot the smoke coming out from Sakurajima ? 

 

Catching the train back to Kagoshima. 

Wonderful scenery especially of Sakurajima during the train ride back.

We alighted at Kagoshima station this time round instead of Kagoshima chuo station as Sakurajima was closer to Kagoshima station. 

Right adjacent to Kagoshima station was the Kagoshima ekimae (鹿児島駅前) city tram terminus station and the starting point for both the tram routes. 

Love these trams.. they look so vintage. 

Nice weather, nice surroundings. 

On the way to the Sakurajima Ferry terminal, you could see fantastic views of Sakurajima. Sakurajima (桜島) is one of Japan's most active volcano, with eruptions of up to 6 times a day. You can take a ferry from Kagoshima ferry terminal to Sakurajima.

The ferry takes 15 mins and 150yen per way. 

We took a 15 minute walk from the ferry terminal to Yougan Nagisa Park (溶岩なぎさ公園) where there was a long foot bath available for visitors, as well as the Sakurajima visitor centre. 

Relaxing foot bath !

Great view of Sakurajima from Nagisa Park. 

100yen for a bag of mandarin oranges? self service.

Ferry schedule from Sakurajima to Kagoshima mainland. Ferry runs for 24 hours!

Dinner was at an Izakaya - Warawara (笑笑) near our hotel. Scrumptious dinner of sashimi salad, yakitori, beef steak and yaki udon. Comes with all you can drink (alcohol inclusive) at additional 1000yen per pax. cheap!