Day 8: Aso
With the boat trip over almost as quickly as it began, we were on the road again for the hour’s drive north to the Aso-Kuju National Park, which is home to Japan’s largest volcanic caldera and one of the largest active volcanoes in the world.
We checked out the Asobo no Sato Kugino Road Station, which would be tonight’s accommodation, and found it more than suitable with plenty of space and a number of vendors selling ice cream, Wagyu beef, fried snacks, and local craft beer.
Since the weather was good, we decided to drive up the mountain to see if we could book a helicopter ride for the following day. The views on the way up were spectacular, with a different volcanic vista opening up around every corner. The heli ride was on a turn-up-and-see basis and was full today, so we’d try again tomorrow.
Being a clear day, we drove up to the Aso Sanjo Public Square and on to the peak of Aso Nakadake, which has seven craters. This place is uber-touristy and the main attraction in Kyushu, so it was busy with Korean tour buses, Chinese groups, local day trippers, hikers, and bikers. The views into the crater and the boiling cauldron of pale green milky-colored liquid that was emanating sulfuric steam at regular intervals were breathtaking.
We took a walk away from the throng of selfie-snapping tourists at the main crater and across the black, alien world-like Sunasenrigahama volcanic desert for some more stunning vistas. Being mid-afternoon, we didn’t have time for a longer hike, so we headed back down off the mountain to the road station for a cold Aso IPA, a wander around the Montbell outdoor store to look at hiking boots, and an evening view of the mountain range as the sun dropped.
Day 9: Aso
The weather was grim the next morning, with the volcanoes completely shrouded in heavy, ominous-looking clouds. We didn’t have much choice but to drive back up into the mist to see what we could see. The helicopter flight was out of the question, so we drove to the Kusasenri parking lot and Aso Museum, where visibility was about 10 meters at best.
This is the starting point for horse ride excursions across the Kusasenrigahama prairie land, but very little was happening in the thick fog, and the horses looked thoroughly miserable (especially with the guy selling barbequed horse meat). We took a walk out to the lakes, which were just a couple of dried-up pools in the mist, and attempted the viewpoint, but there was no point in this weather. At this point, I was feeling pretty glad that we visited the main crater yesterday during clear skies.
We decided to get off the mountain out of the persistent cloud cover and head to Sensuikyo Gorge for a hike. This area is very popular in summer when the valley is full of blooming Rhododendrons, but today, in early spring, it was a desolate brownscape. The hike awarded us with some good views of the surrounding area, as the weather was clearer at lower elevation, but we only did a couple of kilometers before heading back down.
On the descent, a helicopter was spotted making several trips to and from the car park, so we investigated on the way out. A company called Ari Air had set up a makeshift operations center in the car park and was offering heli tours of the crater – just what we were looking for.
It was a little more expensive than the other outfit at 33,000 yen (7,500 THB) for just a ten-minute charter flight for the two of us, but what the hell, you’re only 50 once and its only money!
The experience was unforgettable, lifting off in what felt like a toy piloted by a kid, being buffeted by the crosswinds, and flying over the epic craters of Mt. Nakadake and Takadake, two of the five peaks that make up the Mt. Aso range. They looked much larger and more imposing from this height, where one can appreciate the scale of this supervolcano, its gaping maw, and the tiny ant-like humans peering into it in the prehistoric landscape below.
The trip was over just as quickly as it had begun, and we ducked out of the chopper, beaming from ear to ear, to head down the valley to the Aso Road Station in the main town north of the range.
This was the busiest road station we’d been to, and even after everything closed at 5 pm, the car park remained close to full of cars, campers, minivans, and larger RVs. We had planned to go to the neighbouring public onsen that evening for a soak, but it appeared that the entire town had the same idea, and the place was rammed, so we skipped it and dined on beer and Wagyu instead.
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