Mount Aso on Kyushu

It’s amazingly simple to travel in Japan on the airlines. We had been told we only needed to be at the airport 20 minutes ahead of time – and at Oita – it would have worked! We, of course, didn’t believe them and arrived early…to wait. Ah well…at least we had our books.
Our first flight was to Kumamoto where we joined a tour out to Mount Aso. This is a bit of a misnomer…there really is no “Mount Aso”; it’s actually a caldera that is about 12 miles in diameter. Inside this huge caldera there are numerous volcanoes and cinder cones, one of which is still active. That, of course, is the one the tour bus took us up to – Naka-dake. There is a cable-car running up to the summit where we enjoyed a Japanese style lunch and a walk up to the rim of the 100m deep crater. Did I mention it was chilly up there? (freezing) And the wind was howling? (even colder) And the gases stank? (and no gas masks). Needless to say, we went back inside to find the kerosene heater to warm up while we waited for the cable car to return.
Click on the title to go to a web page with more information about this area. It looks like a place to visit in the summer - wonderful camping I'm sure.