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• Kusatsu Onsen
• Interview with a Geisha
• 'Anime' Fatasy at the Ghibli Museum

Mt. Aso, the heart of "Fire Country"

February 2005

by Tom Dillon

The Japanese islands are laced with volcanoes, some thunderously active and others not. Of these, the majestic -- and dormant -- Mt. Fuji draws by far the most attention. Yet, an hour and a half by plane south of Tokyo lies another volcano that has been too long removed from the eyes of foreign tourists.

Mt. Aso sits in the center of Japan's southern island of Kyushu and is merely this: the largest volcano on earth!

Aso's volcanic rim stretches 128 km in circumference, and it was here that the island of Kyushu first bubbled up from the sea. The gigantic crater has been dead since time immemorial, but inside stand several other volcanic peaks, one of which is still very alive.

Inside are also sleepy country villages, craggy slopes, trickling brooks and some of the richest farmland in Japan. But one glimpse at the vast outer rim is enough to remind you that the entire area was once a boiling pool of fire.

For this reason, the Mt. Aso area, and Kumamoto Prefecture in which it rests, is nicknamed "Hi no Kuni," meaning "Fire Country."

But there is much more to Mt. Aso than fire. The raw beauty of the countryside combined with the rich bounty of the land has made the area a natural paradise. Enough so that Mt. Aso was included among Japan's very first group of national parks, designated with four other areas in 1934.

The central active peak, Nakadake, stands 1,700 meters high. The encircling outer rim has a steady height of 600 meters. At the widest point, the caldera diameter reaches 27 km. Living inside are roughly 100,000 people, with the city of Kumamoto -- population 650,000 -- only a 40 minute drive to the west. The park also incorporates parts of neighboring Oita Prefecture, including Mt. Kuju, with the full name being Aso-Kuju National Park.

Popular pastimes include hiking, cycling, camping, paragliding and -- in winter -- skiing. But the favorite Aso activity is surely eating. The black volcanic soil gives birth to some of the finest produce in Japan. The area is known for rice, vineyards, fruit orchards of every variety, corn, honey and "soba" (buckwheat). Few visitors depart without a stop at a roadside stand for a brimming bowl of soba noodles or an ear of fresh-roasted corn.

The rich soil also turns out countless wildflowers. In spring and summer, Aso's hillsides sparkle with dainty lilies, orchids, bellflowers and hundreds of others. The grass becomes knee high and turns apple green in color. Cattle munch their way along narrow country roadways with no fences. With blue skies, the scene is reminiscent of Europe or North America -- or Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. Such is the charm of Aso.

Aso also serves as the drinking well for Kyushu. Residents boast that the taste of local spring water is unsurpassed. At well-known Aso springs, such as the Shirakawa headwaters, people stand in line to dip 20-liter canisters into the crystal pool, eager to take water home for drinking and cooking. In some places, the spring water is so near the surface that excavators cannot dig too deep lest they slosh into an underground stream, exactly what happened to railway engineers during construction of a train tunnel in 1975. The construction had to be canceled and the half-finished tunnel is now a water park.

The city of Kumamoto is the biggest in the world to have its water needs met entirely by natural underground springs, all of it from Aso. The clear water has also fueled a national drinking craze, as Kumamoto uses this water to produce high-quality shochu, a spirit distilled from sweet potatoes. Recent health studies found that a shochu enzyme helps reduce blood clots and Kumamoto shochu has been flying off shelves nationwide ever since.

The Aso region also teems with hot springs. On clear days, puffs of steam can be seen rising all across the caldera. Visitors can literally bathe their way from one side to the next, from rocky outdoor pools for mixed bathing to massive bathing salons built for busloads of tourists.

Is the water hot? You bet! But Japanese feel nothing is more relaxing than to soothe oneself in steaming waters of a natural spa. A few minutes of Aso-style parboiling removes stress and makes for a good night's sleep.

Yet, food and water aside, in the end Aso means fire.

Spring could be called fire season in the Aso caldera. For a start, each spring local farmers carefully burn back mountainside brush and grass in order to enable fresh growth over the summer. The fires are set at night and the blazing spectacle draws camera bugs from all over Kyushu, as the black mountains crackle with orange lines of flame. Some fires are arranged in the shape of enormous Chinese characters, a branding of the earth visible for miles and miles.

There is more spring fire to be found at Aso Shrine in the town of Ichinomiya within the caldera. The head priest at this shrine can trace his lineage back 91 generations, farther than any family in Japan except for one -- that of the Japanese emperor. Aso Shrine welcomes the spring growing season with a week long event called the Tazukuri Festival. The highlight of this is known as Hi no Furi Matsuri -- the Fire Flinging Celebration -- in which the shrine burns bales of grass to welcome the bride of the new harvest. Participants then grip the flaming bales with a rope and twirl them rapidly overhead until the rope burns through. On the night of Hi no Furi Matsuri, the street in front of Aso Shrine is ablaze with hundreds of people spinning bales of roaring fire.

The symbol of Aso is the smoldering volcanic mouth at the top of Nakadake. Here velvet plains of grass give way to moonscape scenery of twisted and scorched rock and the air pinches with the sharp odor of sulfur. When especially active, the volcano spits rocks and showers the entire caldera with plumes of black ash.

But those times are rare. On most days, visitors can creep right to the edge of the volcanic mouth and stare down at the hissing power of mother nature. Concrete bunkers dot the approach, providing havens in case the volcano decides to spew a volley of stones.

A parking area for cars is only a few minutes' walk from the mouth, and a ropeway carries guests from the fertile plain just below. Not far from here stands the Aso Museum, a tribute to the awesome power and spectacular nature of the volcano.

Mt. Aso is easily reached by car from Kumamoto City, but air traffic lands even closer. Kumamoto International Airport sit just outside the caldera. For those traveling by train, from spring through fall Aso can be reached from Kumamoto via the Aso Boy steam locomotive, or by regular trains at any time of the year.

Mt. Fuji is not the only picturesque volcano in Japan. If you're traveling south, keep the dramatic scenery of Fire Country in mind.