This weekend was much needed. I had my first near(ish) death experience with a volcano, got naked with a bunch of old people at a Japanese onsen (hotspring), ate some amazing Indian food (which is hard to come by in these parts), bought a lot of great things for my apartment, and learned my lesson again not to EVER drink Starbucks for any reason. This weekend helped me forget what hard work tending to kids can be and reminded me of the reason I moved to Japan- so that I can explore this part of the world little by little. On Sunday morning we had a Halloween party for all of our kids at the school, a "fashion show" for them in a public mall, and then they went trick or treating to all the stores in the outdoor mall. It was early, hot, and the kiddies were all jacked up on sugar. They were cute but it was more stressful then fun, so I was relieved to ditch out of town since I had Monday off. Sarah and I bought our tickets to Kagoshima for 1400 yen (which is only about 14 dollars even with the ever decreasing dollar) and took off around 3:00. We arrived into Kagoshima which I believe to have population of about 600,000 or so, but mind you in a very small piece of land, so it has a lot more hustle and bustle than Miyakonojo. We rolled into town, found a hostel to stay at, ate some Italian food, and then went to this pub owned by a British transplant named Richard. We drank some of the miracle drink "Sochou" which does not posses any of the main hangover causing agents, toyed with idea of playing some Panchinko as we always do, then decided to get some sleep and wake up early the next day. This morning we rose with the sun and were delighted to see that it was an amazing day to be by the sea. Sarah got really excited about there being a Starbucks by our hostel so we stopped by in the morning before we got on the ferry to the volcano. When I was in Hong Kong I remember ordering coffee and it being in a six ounce cup, and because Japan is the land of "all things small" I figured I'd order a large White Chocolate Soy Mocha with an extra shot. I was really excited as well to drink coffee that wasn't instant. In Japan most of the sweets aren't very sweet and if they are they are very small in size so my body hasn't really been ingesting the its typical sugar and caffeine supply it was so accustomed to in the U.S. I deserved the sickness that ensued. It was Starbucks afterall. The only dinning experience more lowly then this one is what they call Macu-Donarusudu in Japan. This is forbidden. After Starbucks we caught a cab over to the ferry terminal, and it is so cool- in Japan the doors of cars in cabs automatically open and close without any human toil other then the driver pushing a button. We took a very short and cheap ferry ride over to the island where Sakurajima lies with hopes of maybe hiking up to the top or catching a bus up there. They say that they let visitor get within 2 kilometers of the crater. Before we had anything to do with the volcano Sarah and I were intent on having an onsen experience. There are tons of hotsprings all around Japan, particularly in Kyushu and we had yet to visit one. The night before, the owner of the pub we were at gave us directions to get to an outdoor onsen that you can warm up in while gazing out at the sea. Turns out it was closed for cleaning this day so we went to another a few blocks away. This one was really nice too although it is still difficult to live in Japan when your not 100 percent sure what is going on all the time and you can't read half of the signs. We got to the onsen and we somehow communicated with the women working there that we needed to buy tickets out of this machine that had Kanji writing only on it in order to use the onsen, we needed to buy towels, and we needed to be naked amongst other onsen goers. You get into this room and you are supposed to take a shower among many other people first so as not to pollute the balance of the water. They had a really hot onsen with huge windows that opened to the ocean outside, one that was quite chilly particularly after using the hot one, and a third that was either a medicinal volcanic bath or a sand bath- it was hard to say. It was really refreshing to experience and there were also saunas to use afterward as well as all kinds of fun soaps and shampoos to clean off with afterward provided. They had those foot massage machines and massaging chairs as well which I was happy to try. I guess the really incredible part was that it only cost about three dollars for use of the facility. Now that I have overcome my onsen shyness I am looking forward to trying out some more and finding my favorite. After the onsen, Sarah and I discussed hiking up the volcano to check out the crater. We went and spoke with a women at the tourist center and she informed us that we could catch a bus up to the observation point but the rest of the hike would be up to us. We decided to maybe hike up later on in the month as we both wanted to check out the rest of the city before left that night. We found a beautiful shrine around the area, took some pictures, and then caught the ferry back. On the way back we heard a loud rumble and saw Sakurajima spit out a huge plume of ash. I of course, am scared of anything and everything remotely dangerous thanks to my mother, ,so I was freaking out a little bit; particularly because we had just watched a movie on the volcano's destructive capabilities. It was fantastic that we were able to see all of this happen as we were leaving the island, not as we were within two kilometers of the crater as we had planned on possibly doing earlier in the day. People that build cities around potential natural disasters are either stupid and brave. I'm not sure, I've always lived on one fault line or another all of my life. I guess these minor eruptions are what earthquakes are to me- not a big deal really. Some Japanese people were a little freaked which freaked me out. Anyhow, we lived. After this we went to this really great "ethnic" store where I purchased a lot of stuff for my apartment, we also went to an English bookstore where I picked up a book from a really popular Japanese author, and what seems like my one hundredth Learn Japanese book. Not much else to tell about the day. Kagoshima is REALLY nice though and it is very close. I think I may go back next weeekend for a festival they are having although I'm also thinking of going to Osaka.