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Sakurajima lives.
In the south most island of Kyusyu is one of most archaic places in Japan. People there always survived by volcanic fire, by typhoon wind and by strange dialects. The place I stood was Kagoshima City side, yes there is a big city of 800’000 inhabitances just 2.5 Km away from this Sakurajima Peninsula. This is an active volcano. It means time to time erupt. Last time it spit fire was several months ago, with huge sound it exploded. More astonishing is that around 2600 people live on Sakurajima permanently. School kids in Sakurajima go school with yellow helmet on back for in case, carry a cotton filled head-protecting cap and gaze mask for the ash. It is also famous that family gravestones has got protecting roofs on this one time island Sakurajima. They are the symbol for generations of people who survived with this volcano god. Otherwise Kagoshima is General Takamori Saigo who accidentally began Meiji Restoration 150 years ago. Yes, this is the bronzed corporate guy at Ueno Park in Tokyo standing in kimono with a dog.