Not many cities where the local weather forecast includes an ‘ash forecast’ - whether it’s OK to hang your washing out to dry or whether it’s going to be blackened by volcanic ash blowing from Sakura-jima across the bay!

Locals are known to occasionally carry umbrellas for protection from ash rather than rain.

Perhaps it’s this ‘living on the edge’ that makes Kagoshima (pop 600,000), the capital of Kagoshima Prefecture, such a friendly city - it has, in the past, been voted the friendliest.

Formerly known as Satsuma, Kagoshima has played a large influence in Japan’s history. It was the former seat of one of Japan's most powerful feudal clans, the Shimazu, who played a central role in the Meiji Restoration.