A Lost Park by the Volcano
A quiet day on Sakurajima. Ash in the air, silence on the paths. At the foot of the volcano, a forgotten dinosaur park waits—faded, strange, and still.
In December 2023, we made our way south to Kagoshima. The streets felt calm. Coastal light stretched across the bay. And just beyond it—Sakurajima, always there, always smoking.
The volcano shaped this place. In 1914, a major eruption buried villages and fused the island to the mainland. More recent activity—2016, 2024—keeps the ash drifting and the tension close. People still live there. Others have left. Some houses stand empty, half-covered in volcanic rock.
We crossed over and found something unexpected: a quiet dinosaur park at the foot of the crater. Faded figures, weathered by time and ash. No one else around. Just the sound of wind and the soft crackle of gravel underfoot. It felt like a place left behind—odd, surreal, and strangely peaceful.
All images were shot on Kodak Gold 200, using a Mamiya RZ67 and a Ricoh FF-9.
