kumamoto, mt. aso

We got up early this morning and took the express to 熊本市 Kumamoto on the west coast of Kyushu. Kumamoto's star attraction is one of the major castles in feudal Japan, 熊本城 Kumamoto Castle. The castle is restored but is beautifully done, with a castle interior (rather than a museum, which was done at Osaka Castle). Kumamoto is also famous for the art of samurai swimming in full armour (I couldn't get a photo, so I took a picture of a picture).

 

We left the castle and went to the Kumamoto Folk Crafts Centre, which was a market with local artisans selling their handmade goods. They had really amazing Japanese crafts, including Kumamoto's specialty - blackened iron inlaid with gold and silver. I wanted to get a sword pommel protector as a necklace, but they only had a cellphone strap about a centimetre wide- for $60.

We left Kumamoto and headed east on the train for 阿蘇山 Mt. Aso, which is the largest active volcanic crater in the world. The train station looks like a kind of miniscule-sized log cabin with a series of large shelves presumably meant for pamphlets, but sat empty, apart for one small poster for the BEPPU GUEST HOUSE. We called them and　they had a room free. So having booked accomodation, we were free to enjoy the rest of our day. The JR Mt. Aso Station is a pretty quiet place, even though it was a weekday at 2pm, everything looked closed. We went to the Tourist Information Centre to get rid of our luggage, but we couldn't fit our luggage into even the largest size of coin lockers, so we left it with the grumpy lady who agreed to look after it. We checked the train timetable to make sure we could leave Mt. Nowhere and get to our next destination.

We then took the bus up to the mountain. As we made our ascent up to the ropeway station it started to rain and get very foggy. When we asked about taking the ropeway up to the crater's edge, the lady said it wasn't a good idea because we wouldn't be able to see anything. But, since we'd braved the sticks of Japan and the grouchy luggage lady thus far, we gave it a shot anyway. The rain was still pouring and the fog was thick and heavy as we made our way in the gondola, looking outside you would have thought we were floating in a sea of grey. We made it to the top, umbrellaless of course (and our waterproofs were with Grouchy Luggage Lady). There were signs warning about dangerous volcanic gas.

We managed to see the bubbling blue volcanic pool. Huge clouds of steam were billowing from the pool, and as we stood there watching, the fog began to clear and we could see the pool nearly perfectly. To add to the atmosphere, thunder was rumbling overhead. We stood　sandwiched between two flavours of Nature's wrath, sounds from above and below. It was humbling.

We found our way back to the ropeway station, then down we went on the bus, and back to JR Mt. Aso Station. We got our luggage back not a moment too soon (I wondered what would have become of our luggage had the lady packed up and gone home). We were soaked to the bone, on a heavily air-conditioned train, shivering as we left the mountain and to the small resort city of Beppu. We arrived, found our way to the BEPPU GUEST HOUSE, and went to have a quick dip at what looked like a Buddhist temple but was actually a hot spring resort.