Sakurajima Ferry


The Sakurajima Ferry is Japanese ferry which links between Kagoshima Port and Sakurajima Port, both in Kagoshima prefecture.
It is administered by Kagoshima City Ship Department.

Overview

In 1914, the eruption of Mt. Sakurajima affected the islands inhabitants. They demanded a regular ferry service between Sakurajima and Kagoshima City for emergency restoration and commuting as part of educational development. Thus, a ferry line was established by Sakurajima village office on November 19, 1934. The number of ferries increased, and nowadays there is one ferry every 10 minutes during the daytime and every hour during the night. It takes about 13 minutes to go the 3.5 km across the bay. In 2004, the ferries carried 5.5 million people and 1.64 million vehicles. The reason for there being such a large number of passengers way beyond the number of inhabitants in Sakurajima is the great reduction in the time required compared with the land route.
In the event of Sakurajima erupting, there are special places to anchor the ferry for evacuation of the inhabitants. When heavy rains caused floods in August 1993, Sakurajima ferries helped to rescue residents cut off in the Ryūgamizu area. At the time, the Ryūgamizu area had no place for ferries to anchor, so local fishing boats helped take people from the shore to the ferries.
During summer, one ferry is operated as excursion ship. Ferries can also be chartered for weddings, etc.
There is an udon restaurant called Yabukin on each ferry. In spite of that people have to eat the udon in a mere 15 minutes, it is extremely popular.

Chronology