Sakurajima

Today we took the ferry out to Sakurajima, Japan's most active volcano.

Our ferry was called the Cherry Queen. Yeah, that's what they called it.

 There's the volcano.

 We visited Tsukiyomi shrine. Incidentally, Tsukiyomi is the Japanese god of the moon.

 It was a bit of a hike.

 Sakurajima also has a dinosaur park. Obviously I had to see it.

I just saw this fuzzcat in a store window.

Fried fish cakes (satsuma-age) are a specialty of Kagoshima. We picked some up for snacks.

 The hot product suffers.

 Here's Shiroyama.

The view of the city from Shiroyama was really nice.

By the time we reached Kumamoto, it was dark.
You may be familiar with Kumamon, Kumamoto's mascot.

Since it's December 31st, we went to another shrine at midnight.

 I got to try amazake for the first time. I liked it! It was slightly sweet, and didn't have much of an alcohol taste.

 A taiko performance started at midnight.

 The procession was somewhat eerie, and the shrine was beautiful at night, but it lacked the excitement of a Western celebration. It was an interesting experience, but it didn't really feel like we brought in the new year.