Mt Aso is an active volcano on the island of Kyushu. The Aso caldera (crater around the volcano) measures 24km north-south and 18km east-west The largest in the world. The rim of the caldera includes the Kuju Mountains . The mountains in the center of the caldera are known as the Aso-gogaku. Of these Taka-dake (Mt. Taka) is the largest at 1592 meters. From the top of this one we saw Naka-dake, the active peak. The trail we took didn't get us to close to the open pit but got to where we could see it really well. The last major eruption was in 1979.




1) A before shot of Taka-dake before we started the climb 2) The same mountain after we were done and the clouds moved out.


3) All the rainwater made a nice brook and here a nice slow waterfall 4) The clouds temporarily hide the jagged edges of the mountains


5)It didn't look this steep from the bottom 6) A view into the caldera from near the top


7) The active peak is in sight from the top of Taka-dake 8) The trail was on the top of the ridge that ran fom each peak


9) The active crater at the non-steaming end 10) The south side of the active crater was being mined for minerals


11)Getting closer to the steam, with a nice view of other mountains in the back ground 12) Going from the highest of the two we had to descend around steep rocks like these


13) This was the closest we got to active crater, it was about golf ball driving distance away(someone actually brought a 3 iron) 14) One of the "safe houses" for when the volcano erupts, it didn't look like it could protect from a stiff wind


15) Making our way down from the peak to the cable car house 16) Looking down the mountain from the cable car house


17) The cable car house that let the people who were too lazy to climb the mountain get off 18) The jagged peaks from the other side of the mountain


19) One last view of the valley 20) The path we took down the mountain ran right next to the stream


21)A clear view of the top at the end of the day 22) One of the cable cars


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