I thought people who live under a volcano were brave.
But 205 people live INSIDE a dormant volcanic crater. It's a Japanese island called Aogashima, south of the mainland.
(the port)
The island is 9 square kilometers in size and is home to fewer than 100 families. It's the smallest village in Japan.
There's another small crater within a large crater. Steep, jagged cliffs covered in volcanic deposits rise hundreds of meters into the air.
How humans arrived on the island is considered a mystery.
The island's own legend states that it was once off-limits to women because it was believed that a man and a woman living together on the island of the gods would become angry.
(The heat, even for cooking, is obviously derived from volcanic energy.)
The first written records of the island appeared around the 15th century, and many of them come from shipwrecks, so there's a good chance that sailors sought refuge on the island and eventually made it their home.
(A sauna for everyone)
A series of earthquakes in 1780-1781 was followed two years later by a volcanic eruption.
(Precious salt is extracted on the island.)
The lava flow burned all the houses, and the inhabitants were forced to flee to a nearby island. Unfortunately, about half of the 327 inhabitants did not manage to escape in time and perished.
The survivors were forced to spend the next 40 years of their lives on the nearby island.
Some seek a new life elsewhere, but others never forgot their beloved island.
(Fabulous flora and fauna).
One of these men was Jirodayu Sasaki. He boldly re-settled the island after 18 years of planning. It was in 1835.
He is considered a hero on the island and there is even a statue of him.
Sorry for my rudimentary Italian, and please share on profiles, but not in spaces.