lost or what?

First I walked from my hotel to the ferry terminal in Kagoshima, about 4,500 steps. Great light!

Here is the ferry terminal, and one of the ferries, they run every 20 minutes.

I was at the ferry terminal at 8am, every shop was closed. But do not worry, you can buy stuff once you arrive at Sakurajima. It is worth noting this is not just a holiday island, people live there, there are schools, and it is a highway to the other side of Kyushu. The ferries run all night.

Since I was quite early, I had the entire top deck of the ferry to myself. Although that could also be because it was quite windy today, I am a bit wind burnt now I think.

Nice view, nice light.

One level down and there were a few people, but in one area of the ferry there were a lot of people...

It may be 8am, it may be a 15 minute $2 ride, but there is a noodle restaurant, and it was very popular.

Let's head to Sakurajima.

Nearly there, I already took too many photos of a mountain from afar.

There are a few shops right by the ferry terminal, but they are probably not useful at this time of day.

If you walk the anti clockwise route, as recommended, you will soon pass both a lawson and a family mart, there is a special reason why they are both brown coloured, but I forget what it is.

This is the hiking 'trail' for the day. Enjoy. This is also the highway to the other side of Kyushu, but it was very quiet, maybe 1 car every 5 minutes.

Every few hundred metres there is a shelter in case of eruption. I have my doubts it would save you.

Hmm, perhaps a canal to safely direct lava out to sea.

There are a few towns around what was once an island but is now connected to Kyushu since the 1914 mega eruption. They are not really touristy towns at all.

After walking around the coast for a while, it was time to turn back towards the mountain and start the minor ascent. I used that vending machine on the right.

There are a couple of shrines, somewhere there is a half buried in formerly molten rock torii gate, but I did not see it. The shrines are very basic.

I started to get a bit of a view of the coast, and a lot more wind.

Reality check, here is the hiking trail.

Now I am really starting to think these might be canals for lava.

About 2/3 of the way around the hiking loop, you will get to the main observation spot. It is over 3km to the crater, it is as close as you can get these days. I did not see any smoke or sparks, but people regularly do, there are numerous live streams on youtube.

View from the observation area.

And looking back to Kagoshima, I will now walk back to the ferry terminal.

OK one more. I did no photo of myself because it was too windy.

There are at least 10 very friendly cats hanging around, they were each being live streamed by someone.

Here is the view on the way down, more of the same.

I arrived back at 'the beach', and it was indeed now very windy. Despite that, the ferry rides were completely smooth.

Typical street scene in this area.

The ferry terminal on this side does not have as many shops, but the cafe was open. Why bother when there is a noodle shop onboard?

I again had the top deck to myself, vomit trough on the right.

Now for the much hyped Sengan-en garden. It was $16 to get in, which in my opinion is a rip off, and easily the most expensive garden I know of anywhere in Japan. It starts with some rocks.

Then there are just a very large number of gift shops and cafes.

Ancient rotting chip board?

A lot of the place is under re-construction and closed off.

More things covered in plastic sheeting.

OK, I made it to a rock garden. There were a lot of people hanging around at the top.

I made my way up a mossy path.

The reason there were a lot of people at the top, a traditional poetry reading was just finishing. Everyone fled immediately.

More moss.

More Sakurajima, those houses are quite modern, with air conditioners and car parking. I must be missing something.

Just outside the exit, there is a Starbucks (not pictured, and I believe they sponsor the garden in some way!), but there is also this building which may have been a canon factory, and the guy that built the canons originally built the garden.

Then it was time to take the train just 2 stops back to my hotel, with everyone else. You can see a beach with actual sand in the background. There was windsurfing going on, great day for it.
So it is relatively easy to walk a loop of Sakurajima and visit Sengan-en in a day.