Where else in the world would there be a tourist ropeway leading up to a pungeant, steaming, and very live, volcanic crater? At least there are concrete emergency shelters installed for the rare occasion when the volcano goes bang.
Mt Aso is in north-central Kyushu (Kumamoto Prefecture), and is a series of peaks located in a very large, ancient caldera. The tourists (myself included) come to Naka Dake, which is where the central live craters are located. There’s a carpark here for those who don’t want to get out of their cars at the ropeway station below. The observation decks up here are frequently (at least partially) closed due to wafting toxic volcanic gases emerging from the crater. There were some roped off areas on the day I was there.
The above two photos are panoramas, so click on them to enlarge them.
