In May of 2010 the inter-congress meeting of the INQUA International Focus Group on Tephrochronology and Volcanism (INTAV) was held in Kirishima City, Japan. INTAV was formed in 2007 at the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) congress held in Cairns. It replaced SCOTAV (Sub-commission on tephrochronology and volcanism), COT (Commission on tephrochronology), and earlier groups dating back to the 1960s. 76 participants from 11 countries attended the INTAV-J meeting (Figure 1). The venue of the meeting was the Kokobu Civic Centre, which was very generously provided essentially free of charge by the Kirishima City authorities (in return for the delivery of two public lectures, one by David Lowe and the other by tephra/ volcano guru of Japan, Hiroshi Machida, on Sunday 9 May). Participants were treated to a personal welcome by the Mayor of Kirishima City, Shuji Maeda, followed by what appeared to be a very special (and delicious) banquet. However, this spread turned out to be standard lunch and dinner fare provided by the Civic Centre cafeteria and was enjoyed by participants on several occasions during the meeting. Mayor Maeda graciously invited the entire conference group to his personal residence for another spectacular banquet on Monday evening which included the use of dining ‘rooms’ in caves cut into the c. 30 cal. ka Ito ignimbrite. Traditional Kagoshima fare was put on, accompanied by the local alcohol ‘sho-chu’, which is made from fermented sweet potato and is not altogether unlike its Russian cousin vodka