Yikes! Mt. Oyama’s erupted (again).

Miyakejima, one of the Izu islands stretching south from Tokyo, has been experiencing earthquakes and eruptions for months. This morning’s paper shows sulfurous clouds billowing over the landscape while residents look on.

After a series of minor eruptions over the last two weeks, the volcanic soothsayers are saying the volcano is due for a major erruption and people are being put on “full alert” as if waking up in the middle of the night to no electricity and 8 cm of volcanic ash doesn’t alert you to danger!

Schoolchildren have been moved into dormitories in western Tokyo; the elderly and infirm have been removed from the island by helicopter. But plenty of residents remain in their villages at the base of the volcano. What are they waiting for?