Aso volcano


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February 15th 2013
Published: February 15th 2013
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It has been my dream to look into the crater of an active volcano and now it has come true.

A tip how to get to Aso volcano from Kumamoto: We took a bus from Kumamoto bus station, it takes about 2 hours to get to the cable car at the foot of the volcano. I've seen information on the internet that you can go there by train - that's not convenient. The train doesn't go directly to that place, you'll have to take a bus after that anyway.

The cable way may be closed because of volcanic activity, but you can still go up using a walking path.

When we came closer to the crater there was a smell of sulphur and the viewpoint was closed because volcanic gas was going just in its direction. When the wind blew from the crater the sulphur smell got stronger and I had a cough sometimes. We bought protecting masks but they turned out to be useless.

So we went to the right for a short track around caldera and up the mountain and it turned out a very good thing to do - there were so many beautiful views. In the end we came to the main crater from opposite side. I will not describe everything we saw in too many words - from photos you'll get a better idea about it.

And we were lucky - on our return the wind changed and the view point was opened, so we had a peek into the very deep of the main crator with its lake of aquamarine color. This lake is a mix of sulphuric and hydrochloric acid - but it's so beautiful, that it takes quite an effort to realize that it's so dangerous.


Additional photos below
Photos: 53, Displayed: 23


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the cable way
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a reasonable explanation for closing the way to public :)
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there are many shelters like this near the crater
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puffs of volcanic gas which prevented us from getting closer at the beginning
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in case you go too close to the crater or to some prohibited place, a special officer is always there to take you back
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fields of volcanic ash in caldera
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the tracking route
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soil and stones around volcano are all sorts of brown, red, pink and yellow. Don't know why exactly it happened but looks impressive
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ice on top of Nakadake mountain


19th March 2013
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HOW LUCKY ARE YOU?
"It has been my dream to look into the crater of an active volcano and now it has come true"...couldn't agree more...scary but stunning!

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