Climbing Mt. Aso (阿蘇山) or...not.

Last weekend, we decided to head down from Fukuoka to Kumamoto to see the famous Mt. Aso, Japan's largest volcano (or was it caldera?) in Japan. The area is actually called the Aso National Park and consists of a couple of mountains that you can climb/hike and the one called Naka-dake is the one that has the famous caldera.

We started out by taking the 2 hour "super non-stop" bus from the Tenjin Bus Center (go in pairs and you can buy the special 4-ticket pack in the bus center that makes it 1600円 each way) to the Kumamoto Kotsu Center. From there, we took another bus to Kumamoto station and took a 1 hour train to Aso Station. And from there, you will have to take a 30 minute bus to the main area.

The thing people should know about going to Mt. Aso, though, is that the buses going from Aso Station are really infrequent. There's one bus an hour that stops at Kusasenri (草千里) - the grassland area near the volcano and the ropeway station from which you can hike up or take the cable car up to the top (阿蘇山西駅). And to top that, the last bus leaving the top is at 5 PM, so if you don't have a car, you'll have to keep that in mind.


We ended up going to Kurokawa for some onsen action on Saturday since we didn't think we would have enough time for Aso, but to our disappointment, the ropeway was closed on Sunday and people weren't allowed to be within 1km of the caldera due to volcanic activity. Lame!

We opted to climb some other mountain - it was still pretty fun and the views were great - and then headed over to an onsen in another area.

One piece of advice. If you decide to hike south from Kusasenri, DO NOT take the route on the sign/map marked 下田. After spending 40 minutes on the trail, you will end up here (see below) and then have to walk another hour or who knows how long to get back to civilization (assuming you have a map to follow). Interesting experience to have as a story, but a little scary when you're in the situation, especially when the sun is setting and you don't see a single habited house or person in sight. Needless to say, we did not to go to any (not decrepid) onsens.

Overall, it was a great trip but main point of advice: if you've got a car, USE IT.

I hope this information helps someone out there!


Transportation Info:
Tenjin Bus Center -> Kumamoto Kotsu Center
- Buses leave every 10-15 minutes
- Approx. 2 hours
- Kaisuken 4 ticket pack costs 6400 yen - between two people, that makes it 3200 yen for a round trip.

Kumamoto Kotsu Center -> Kumamoto Station
- Bus platform 20 or 21
- 10-15 min.

Kumamoto Station -> Aso Station
- About 68 min on the express train or a little longer on the local trains with one stop
- 1080 yen for the local, 1980 yen or so for the express

Aso Station -> Mt. Aso (Aso-san)
- Buses run once an hour
- 30 min
- Last bus at 5 PM from Mt. Aso back

again, use a car. :)