Impressive Mt Aso

The jetfoil was punctual as ever (like all public transport in Japan) and we reached Kagoshima in time for lunch at another favorite eatery: Home cooking at a family restaurant  a few blocks away from Kagoshima Chuo station. Then we took the short Shinkansen ride to Kumamoto.

The next day we made our visit to Mt Aso by taking the "Aso Boy" train to Aso station. This is a cute train for children. It has a children's playground in the centre of the train. There is also a viewing car at the back of the train and also an appropriately sombre car for senior citizens, who I find seem to dress themselves in rather dark colors here. Susan was thrilled by all the different drawings of the little doggie throughout the train. I presume this is "Aso Boy".

We disembarked at the Aso town station which was painted black(indicating the lava??). Then it was a 30min bus ride up to the cable car station which took passengers up to the lip of the caldera of Nakadake. We decided to walk, which was a good thing. We saved 1000Yen each, and had a lovely walk in the bright sunshine.

I have never been up to the edge of a volcano crater before. We understood that it had been closed for 10 days either because of bad weather or because the fumes were too dangerous. There was also a walk across old lava sands to view the plants that try to grow there, before being dried up by the heat.We gave thanks for the perfect weather.

Near the volcanic museuam, there is a nice walk across a grassy plain. It looks like there is also some accommodation here...made a note for another visit