'Naples of the Orient'
When we landed today Jill and I had thought we would try the 'Hop on - Hop off' style of bus, called Island View Tour Bus which we caught near where the ship's shuttle bus dropped us off. Dolphin Port with its selection of eateries, art studio and interesting type shops offered a tempting array of pottery, Satsuma Cut Glass, bamboo products and textiles local to this port.
A short 10 minute ferry ride from the the port is the very active Sakurajima volcano. Whilst we were there I had been told it had erupted twice!.
Originally we had hoped to share a taxi to visit Chiran, the stronghold of the Shimazu samurai. There are streets lined with well-preserved samurai houses and their gardens. To catch a taxi we were told it would cost us around Y15,000 for an hour drive there and then pay the same to return. So the day spent on the bus would suit our budget. Unfortunately a lot of passengers from the ship had the same idea and instead of alighting from the bus to explore some interesting places, the bus was so overloaded we thought we would never get a spot on the next one, so stayed on until it returned to the port.
Boardwalk at Dolphin Port
Beautiful landscaped verges
Volcano in background
Cars covered in volcanic ash
Unusal shorbet cones
View of volcano from Dolphin Port
View of volcano from near the Diamond Princess
Volcano erupting....didn't pick it up until I downloaded my photos....This was taken about 3-5 mins after the boat sailed past.
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