阿蘇 Aso

From Nagasaki I started eastwards again. After so much information, human history and urban areas I longed to see the nature, which brought me to 阿蘇 Aso.

阿蘇 Aso

Aso is a small village in central 九州 Kyushu in 熊本県 Kumamoto Prefecture. In spite of being a small village, a lot of tourists stop here for a while. The reason is Aso's natural attraction 阿蘇山 Mount Aso.

阿蘇山 Mount Aso

Mount Aso is the largest still active volcano in Japan and among the largest in the world. This means you can stand on top of the huge crater and look right inside and see the water sulfur mix seething .

From Aso Station a bus will take you to the mountain for around 500 Yen. On the way I remember two stations: one was called Aso Youth Hostel and the other Aso Camping ground. So that are your options for sleeping here. Of course Aso being a little village in the midst of nature, you don't even need the camping ground, you can camp basically everywhere.

Like inactive 富士山 Mount Fuji, 阿蘇山 Mount Aso has been heavily developed for tourism. That means paved roads lead all the way up to the huge crater. You can go there even by car. Another option is a Cable Car that brings you from the bus station to the top for a horrendous sum. The best option is still walking. Walking from the Bus station to the top takes no more than 30 minutes and the road is not too steep.

walking to the top



but you can also take the street

Reaching the top you will find a catering station and a touristic area around the crater. At least they don't charge entrance... yet. That means depending on the season there will be many tourists looking down the crater, it can even get crowded when a whole tourist group arrives. However most don't stay very long and if you wait for a bit you should have most of the area for yourself (think in cable car arrival steps ;))

the station right next to the crater looks like a fortress

and indeed you can find little bunk shelters all around the crater area



there is also a temple for protecting the visitors



apparently Aso tourism has seen better times,



there were a couple of abandoned houses

What not many tourists notice is that the area around Mount Aso, which is not paved and secured by fences is also really wonderful and there are many more smaller craters to be found around. So if you have enough of Mass Tourism manufactured in Japan, you can sneak out of the road unseen and explore the area a bit. If you are a bit careful, I don't think its too dangerous, however there is one danger you should be aware of:

硫黄ガス雲 Sulfur Gas Clouds

Mount Aso constantly spits out gigantic sulfur clouds out of the craters. The one from the huge crater are big and concentrated enough to kill humans by suffocation. That is why the tourist association has many helpers including a medical team there as well as a warning system. The system has basically four colors:

青 blue 0 ppm
currently no sulfur eruption

緑 green 0.2 - 2 ppm
minor sulfur eruption, people with Asthma, Bronchitis, breathing problems, heart problems and a weak stamina should be careful and take precautions

黄色 yellow 2 - 5 ppm
medium sulfur eruption people with Asthma, Bronchitis, breathing problems, heart problems and a weak stamina are forbidden to approach the crater, life threatening. Other people should be careful and take precautions.

赤 red more than 5 ppm
high sulfur eruption. Access forbidden to everyone, the air is not breathable.

At another spot precautions are described with medicine and brining a wet towel. If you breathe through the wet towel you can block most of the sulfur and suck the oxygen out of the air.

When I arrived we had yellow alert, for me having Asthma it would have meant it was too dangerous. However I am in excellent physical condition and my Asthma hasn't bothered me for quite some time, so I took the risk. I had my emergency spray at hand and prepared a wet towel, which I used for breathing and I was okay.

However if you to camp in the wilderness, take the sulfur into account. Spending there an hour is different from a whole night. The high sulfur percentage in the air will eventually get you, so be sure to get some distance between you and the craters.

an observatory close to the crater provides you with some far sight

ハイキング Hiking

Finally if you decide to spend a night here, you will have plenty of time left to walk around the wonderful nature here. There are several hiking trails you can follow, but when you feel adventurous, you can also get a whole area map at the station and just walk where you feel like. All area around the volcanoes is easily accessible and overgrown by an abundance of nature, due to the fertile volcanic ash ground. Be sure to take a compass with you and you should find your way through the green meadows and grey stone planes easily.

you can still see where the lava river was

A cool thing about Japan are the little stone figures people erect by placing stones above each other. If you have careful eyes and watch your surroundings closely, you can find them at the strangest places.

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So I found my way back to nature and found some time and tranquility to let the thoughts and impressions of the last days wander by. My next stop would be the number one destination for honey moons before flights to Hawaii became affordable...

大山ハイキング Ooyama Hiking

With the JLPT behind me, I have realized that I have spent much time indoors lately, so I needed to go out. And what better place than one of the mountains nearby, a splendid opportunity to awe the wonderful colors of autumn. Yes indeed, even in December, here in Japan it is still like early autumn weather in central Europe.

So Randy (Holland), Loic (France), Junko (Japan) and me (Planet Rubikon) prepared for a nice hiking trip and headed out for 伊勢原 (Isehara), from where you can reach 大山 (Ooyama) easily by bus. We were equipped with jackets, gloves and bonnets, but soon had to realize that the weather is so nice and warm, that we won't need them :)

There is a little cable car, going half way up to the 1252 meters of the big mountain (大 = big, 山 = mountain). We were in the mood for cheating, and I haven't entered a cable car in over 10 years, so we boarded the ride to half the height and continued with our feet from there.



the red cable car



and the old one

We were indeed lucky, the autumn colors called 紅葉 (kouyou) or (o momiji) in Japanese were in full "bloom". The landscape was wonderfully filled with tones of yellow, red, orange, brown and trees that remain green. Like a sea of colors. I tried to capture some impressions of it on pictures, but it is never the same as standing there, looking up the surrounding mountains. Japan is especially fond of 紅葉 and people often make trips to marvel about the wonderful colors. I wonder if I never realized the wonders about autumn in Germany, or if autumn is indeed different here. That is the nice effect of traveling different cultures, you always can broaden your horizon and suddenly realize and learn about new wonderful things, that existed since you were born.





amazing isn't it? like painted





autumn colors

The path to the top of the mountain is quite nice, it is not too difficult, so you have plenty opportunity for exchanging interesting stories with your fellow hikers and develop interesting subjects in conversation. But it is just not easy enough to become boring. For example, as you can see below on the picture, sometimes, we found obstacles in our way and wondered if this really would be the right way, finally climbing over those fallen trees.






obstacles in our way





the trees reach until the top

The top of the mountain is not especially special ^_^. There is a little ラーメン Ramen shop some places to sit, a toilet and of course some opportunities to look around the landscape surrounding 大山. We could see our workplace with it's 117 meters being a small mountain amongst its fellow buildings as well. We could see all the cities around us from birds view and all the other smaller mountains. Only threatening 富士山 Mt. Fuji was still higher than we were, looking down on his smaller sister over here.





the top



the view from the top, you can see all the other mountains and cities around



and with Randy's high end camera, you even can see our work place (the tower)

After eating our お弁当 (Lunchbox), I brought Spaghetti with tomato sauce :), we slowly started to climb down again. After resting for a while it has become a bit chilly, and the sun also was shun by clouds, so we were glad now bringing our coats away. By the way, you remember my coat being taking from Mt. Fuji goblins? So I had to get a new one. Luckily I found this. Jamaica/Reggae Second Hand Fair Trade clothing store on the way from Youth Heim to the station. So I was able to find a nice cheap second hand coat for the coming winter.

Equipped like this, we made for the way down, for which you can take an alternate route and different it was. Were we walked between autumn colors our way up, we walked in Mordor our way down. The trees were already bereft of all their leaves and the lands looked barren. The way down is a bit tiresome, because of thousands of stairs, which are hard to take and weary your legs.





the way down was painted in colorless grey

But eventually we made it back half way down and after some democratic vote took the cable car once again down to the 麓 Fumoto the foot of the mountain. After a nice dinner back in Atsugi, we headed home and rested our weary legs :)

Still marveling about autumn colors dancing in his head
mika


More impressions from Ooyama, the big mountain