Sprouting hot springs and giant radishes
Mount Sakurajima
Kagoshima, Japan
For the port city of Kagoshima, on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, ash is as common a nuisance as rain. Sakurajima, the perfectly poised 3,663-foot volcano across Kagoshima Bay, belches a puff of fine ash almost daily that coats cars, streets and any laundry mistakenly left outside to dry downwind.
About 7,000 people live on Sakurajima itself, and ferries shuttle workers and tourists between Kagoshima and the volcano several times an hour. Children on Sakurajima wear yellow hard-hats for their walk to school, to protect against possible falling debris.
The volcanic activity gives the town naturally-fed hot spring baths, massive "daikon" (radishes fed by the rich soil), and a moon-like lava park.
While residents go about daily life seemingly unfazed by Sakurajima's constant grumbling, no one forgets that this peninsula was quite recently an island. A massive eruption in 1914 connected Sakurajima to the mainland and made the bay substantially shallower.
Because of its activity and its urban post, Sakurajima is listed as one of the world's 15 "Decade Volcanoes."
Intro
Mauna Loa and Kilauea
Pacaya
Mount Rainier
Mount Ruapehu
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