Aso-san & Beppu

Leaving Nagasaki, we headed inland into the centre of Kyushu, and into the old caldera of a very large volcanic complex, Aso. The train ride over the interior is an event in itself and very beautiful. The old caldera is really a ring of mountains with almost a cliff edge on the inside at a circumference of about 120 km, with the active cone rising up from the centre consisting of 5 main peaks, of which Naka-dake has the currently active crater on the side. In between the ring and the cone complex, there is a wide area of rice paddies, farmland and a few towns. We stayed in Aso town, which was a great base for our day trip up the mountain. We stayed at this fantastic brand new backpackers, Aso Base Backpackers, which was an awesome last minute find as it really had only just opened and it was really beauitful. Lovely wood everywhere, a log fire, owners who spoke very good englishh and wallpaper that had tiny glow-in-the-dark stars all over it! :)

The evening we arrived, we decided to go up the mountain to get the eveniing light as we would be leaving the next day in the afternoon. Was hard to get a good view of the actual active part of the complex, but we had a fun time in Kusasenri (a meadow plateau with little lakes and grass) with some impressive clouds and lighting.

Clouds tumble over Kusasenri

The next day we caught the first bus we could straight up to the crater (which unfortunately wasn't until 9 am). The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky and practically no wind - not great for photography but I wasn't complaining! It wasn't too hazy either, which was a first for us for quite some time (Japan is quite hazy unfortunately). The crater wasn't puffing out much steam like it had the night before but it was great because you could see the unusal green-blue of the lake, which you usually don't see. We spent about 4 hours up on the complex, around the crater and across the plateau, eventually making our way back to Kusasenri where we caught the bus back down again to catch our train to Beppu (there's only 4 direct trains per day so you don't have a lot of flexibility).

Us on the west rim of the crater (Nishi-koko) at Naka-dake

Walking across the upper plateau (crater in the top right)

Naka-dake and Taka-dake from across Kusasenri

Beppu was actually a lot better than we had been led to believe by the guidebooks. It may depend on what you do there! We decided to spent our day there (as we stayed for 2 nights) going to some different onsens. We tried the big onsen complex at Suginoi Palace at the back of Beppu on the hillsides overlooking the city and the harbour. Wonderful views and really great pools - for each men and women there are 4 main tiered "infinity" pools on the cliff edge, and also tubs, sauna, waterfall and an indoor pool. After dinner that evening we also tried out our first (and maybe last!) sand onsen. Great experience and fun to try but really hot! The black volcanic sand is also very heavy and it's hard to breathe - rather wierd sensation!

Beppu shore-front - very warm and clear water