Mount Aso
18 Feb 2006 |After spending the morning in the awe-inspiring town of Takachiho, we didn’t think the day could get any better. That’s when we arrived at our final stop, beautiful Naka Peak on Mount Aso.
It turns out that Mount Aso is actually an active composite volcano range. We had driven all over the Aso mountain range during our trip, but it’s so large and spread out that we didn’t even really notice. For example, on the way to Takachiho we had been looking down into Aso’s crater, which measures 24 kilometers from north to south. It was such a stunning view. The guide told us that Aso’s crater is the world’s largest and most populated caldera. With it’s green; gently rolling landscape and broad grassy plains I’d bet it’s the most beautiful as well.
It’s hard to get a sense of scale from pictures, but those little figures near the lake are indeed people.
I wish we had more time to explore Naka Peak, but the busy schedule barely allotted enough time to eat lunch and take a few pictures. Azusa and I wanted to get closer to the smoke emitting volcanic rim, but we’ll have to save that for our next trip to Kyushu.