Mount Aso (8/9th April 2000)

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David had been raving about Aso since his last visit in January so when my friend came to visit it seemed like the perfect opportunity to go. Especially seeing as cherry-blossom fever was at its peak. So Friday we quickly organised the details; David, Sandy, Servane and I (Kim) were to travel to Kumamoto early-ish the next morning in Vicky, Sandy's wonderful kei-car.

Saturday
We headed off maybe a little later than we ought, 11am. This was due in part to the fact that we had been out on the town the evening before consorting with drunk Japanese business men. One of whom was very taken with Servane and decided to take the opportunity to practice his French; Gerard Depardieu, Jean Reno, Vanessa Paradis etc...! The four of us bundled into Vicky, far surpassing the 200kg maximum load! A little cramped but doubtless less hassle than the train. We quickly arrived in Kumamoto where we stopped for lunch. I'm not quite sure why but Jusco(cheap supermarket) ended up being our destination. We probably could have done better but it filled the hole and we continued on our way, or tried, the road had suddenly become far more congested. The last few kilometres to the Youth Hostel seemed to take a lifetime, finally around 3.30pm we achieved our destination. We booked into the Youth Hostel and despite friendly warnings from the owner that the volcano was pumping out toxic gases we decided to go and poison ourselves. We briefly stopped on the way up to take in the surroundings and to give good old Vicky a break. In spite of the cloud cover I finally began to appreciate the vastness of the caldera. Onwards and upwards to the volcano proper. It wasn't smoking a lot but it was choking out a lot of sulphur which was just a little uncomfortable on the lungs. We explored the moon like landscape until we realised that we were the only ones left and there was a man with a loud speaker actually yelling at us to get down!! Who knew that volcanoes shut at 6pm! On the way back down we stopped to take in the sunset and David managed to get a really nice photo of the girls. We had to be back at the Youth Hostel before 10pm so it was time for tea. We settled on a ramen shop, not that we had a lot of choice, it was hardly a booming, prosperous town. It had to be the first Japanese restaurant ever to run out of rice! Eventually we picked something that they could fix and we could read. On the way to the Hostel we made the obligatory stop at the 7/11 to pick up breakfast. Back at the Youth Hostel we girls found we were sharing our dorm' with a girl from Saitama who was taking a week to travel Kyushu on a rail pass. She was obviously dying for company as she almost dived on me to help make my bed! She came downstairs with us where we joined David and indulged in a game of cards. 11pm, lights out, as yet no concrete plans for tomorrow, rendez-vous 8am for breakfast.

Sunday
The one problem with Youth Hostels is the rising time of the other residents, 6.30am and already there was a noisy conversation being held just outside our room. Just a little old man trying to be helpful but annoying all the same. Sandy and I got out of bed with relative ease and joined David for breakfast, Servane struggled a little more. Apparently her sleep had been less than deep. We decided to explore TakaDake, the highest of the five peaks and we were on our way by 9am. We were told that if we took the ropeway half way up the mountain to finish the ascent would take an hour, and then another three for the descent. Sandy and I were a little unsure if we wanted to do all of that but we decided if we felt it was too much we could always get the cable car back down. The cable car was sad little affair, filthy in the extreme, but it got us to the views. After 20 mins of quite steep climbing we were able to look down into the active volcano which was a whole lot less smelly than the day before. Somewhat worriedly I moved upwards onto to some very nice windy ridges. I'm assured by the others that the views were magnificient and the photos look really good but I was far more concerned with my feet staying somewhere solid. Arrived at the summit there was a gale blowing and we were very unprepared so we just huddled behind outcrops for shelter from the biting cold. Sandy and I agreed that neither of us fancied going back the way we had come so that meant the path down. The path down was a challenge, barely a path there was a lot of scrambling to be done and I often had to lower myself off ledges to find the best path for the others. I had a ball but I don't think Sandy would say the same. It took us just a little longer than the suggested 3hrs, more like 4h30mins! We finally made it off the mountain just as the rain descended, perfect timing. We hurried to get some hot drinks and assess the damage, cut hands, sore muscles and a decent dose of sunburn. Time for lunch/dinner, the Hostel owner had mentionned a cheap cheerful place to eat near Aso station so off we went. The food was good and very welcome. Adventure over, we piled back in to Vicky and set off on the road home. Servane slept all the way home and none of us managed a very late night.

Aso was just as beautiful as David had said, I guess I just need to wait for my next set of vistors for an excuse for my next trip there!

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