navigating nihon: The Crater of Aso!

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navigating nihon

| The Crater of Aso! | 11.09.2004 |

Wooohooo! What an awesome weekend! On Saturday morning I headed over to Kyushu on a short road trip with Fred, Viv and Morgan. Aside from being a bit chilly at night (nothing a few chuhai and hand warmers wouldn't fix), the weather was picture perfect! Here's proof:

What a group of stunners!

After taking the ferry over to Kyushu we made our way to Aso-san, the largest crater in the world! (unless I'm mistaken) The crater is 128km in circumfrence and has 5 smaller volcanoes and the town of Aso within it! I bet the mother of the JET who is placed there almost flipped with she found out that her child would be living in an active volcano for the next year! :P We stopped to see a waterfall enroute and sampled the local flavour of soft serve ice cream - kabotsu (really sour oranges). We could have done without....it was less than oshii...:) The Ehime mikan ice cream still takes the prize, closely followed by Tottori's nashi (Asian pear) variety!

A funny sign warning of the dangers of too much SO2!

Yours truely at the top! Whew, it was a hard climb....in the Car!

Our campsite was as Japanese as ever. Forget hiking or canoeing into your site as one often does in Canada. You can drive right up to your site! Oh, and lets not leave out all the amenities - running water, electricity, coin showers - oh and get this, washers and dryers! We paid out 1000 yen each to a very charming old man who kept mistaking his calculator for the ink pad. I still don't know if it was senile decay or the shock of seeing 4 foreigners. Nevertheless, he seemed to really appreciate the Ehime mikans that I gave him. Internationalization at its besuto, ne! We dined on a gourmet feast of yaki soba, beef, corn and smores before calling it a night.

Try to hold back your enthusiasm, Viv! A oishii yakisoba feast!

On Sunday morning we headed up the volcano to see what all the fuss was about. I went to Aso 2 years ago but I was unlucky because the wind was blowing the wrong direction so we weren't allowed near the mouth of the crater (sulfur dioxide). The winds weren't a problem and we could see the crater (or cratter - pronounced like matter - according to Fred LOL) up close. It was soo cool to see all the different layers of rocks and the pool of SO2 rich water that was bright green!! Summit is not as rugged as one might expect, atleast by NA standards - it's completely done up for tourists, paved trails and all! Wouldn't want to ruin those prada shoes - seriously, I saw people wearing them - at the top of a volcano for goodness sake!!! I knew what to expect but I think Viv was a bit shocked!

We headed back to Beppu mid day to sample it's famous mud onsen! What a riot! This onsen is mixed and loads of fun! We wanted to go so that we could enjoy it with Fred, as he was the only guy in the group. No worries though, all important parts are hidden below the thick mud. Unless you're a middle aged Japanese man who thinks he has something to show off....ahh, if cameras were only allowed. As one doesn't feel 100% clean after sitting in mud for an hour, we headed down the street to another onsen. Hyotan Onsen in quite famous in Beppu (I've been there about 8 times now! How nuts is that considering it's on the next island!) and is known for its variety of baths! A relaxing way to finish the weekend.....if we had only made our ferry on time. Oh well, not a big deal as there was one an hour later.

I burnt my feet while I was covering these guys in hot sand! Just another Sempai duty :)

A big otsukaresamadeshita to Fred for totting us around all weekend. It was a blast! Let's do it again soon!

emma found her way @ 8:11 p.m.

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