A Wonderful Nothing-Special Kind of Day

Oh No! It’s our last port of call. Eight of us joined together for the day. There was Lynn, George, Mitch, Roberta, Mary Jo, John, George and me. We boarded the shuttle bus to find ourselves sitting in flip seats in the aisles. No safety codes here about aisles being clear. After a somewhat uncomfortable ride and a walk around the harbor of our our port town, Kogoshima, we found a quite nice ferry. What a great trip we had over to the island of Sakurajima. There is an active volcano there and that was the purpose of our visit. It was raining and cold so we headed for the tour bus to take us to the volcano observatory. Uh-oh. No bus for an hour 15 minutes. Oh, we think. We can do better than this. Nope. We were back in 45 minutes waiting for the bus with everyone else. We laughed as they crowded us on like we were boarding the subway at rush hour. So much for sightseeing and we couldn’t get off because the next bus, remember is an hour 15 minutes away. We did get a nice ride through the mountains and a closer view of the volcano Uncooperative today, the volcano did not show her colors. So, eventually, back to the ferry we go for another very pleasant journey. On the other side we found a most interesting ‘noodle cook-off’. You could buy tickets, try the different pots of Ramen and vote for your favorite. I guess it is the Japanese version of a Chili Cook-off! Well, that was more great food along the waterfront before our return to the ship.

We got back in time to meet up again at Happy Hour to discuss the details of the day! It’s a prime rib kind of night, something I’ve avoided until tonight. Time is short! Tomorrow – the much dreaded packing day!