Trip to Mt. Aso was exhausting, but fun! It was also a great opportunity to see some of Japan’s natural landscape. Luckily, we were blessed with ideal weather – no rain, warm, but not too hot – but this did mean I got a tan despite wearing factor 50 sun cream, arrgh! Ah well.

We took the train and then bus to Aso, and then took a cable-car (confusingly called “rope-way” in Japanese) to the Mt. Aso volcano. The volcano is still very much active, and white clouds of gas constantly pour out of mouth. The whole area smelt so strongly of sulphur that most people ended up coughing. Around the volcano, the landscape is barren and rocky and some places are coated with pink sulphur. As Andy said, it was like something out of an old dinosaur movie.

After lunch, we then climbed one of the large hills in order to get a better view of the landscape. It was a tough walk (especially in clumpy New Rock boots!) but the view was well worth it! At the top, where lots of enormous black and yellow butterflies flew about, you could see the famous “Santa Clause” face in the landscape – one of the old volcano valleys has two lakes side by side like eyes, a hill in between for a nose, while the beard is the overlooking mountains. From this height, we also had a fantastic view of the Komekuza volcanic crater. This grass-covered mount is a very odd sight; the crater is so smooth and perfectly conical, it looks artificial. Indeed, in ancient times the Japanese believed that a crater of such perfection could have only been formed by the gods.

One thing we did a lot of today was take photos. The two teachers guiding us, who are really nice and friendly, took group pictures of us at every opportunity – god knows how many were taken by the end of the day. The obsession with mass photo-taking is one aspect of Japanese culture I find a little irritating: surely one photo is enough to bring back memories of the trip? But, I smiled and tolerated having to stand around for ages while the teachers lined us all up and took constant photos (and normally took each separate photo twice, just in case). I suppose its just one of those things I have to get used to.

Me, atop one of the mount Aso peaks.  The large conical peak behind is the Komekuza volcano, said to be so perfect that it was created by the gods...

The train that took us to Mt. Aso was so....pink....

Volcano!  Wow!

The whole Durham gang, at the top of the volcano! From top left: Ian, Andy, Nick, Rick, Me and then in the front, Chikuma (Andy's tutor), Ellie, Helen and Tom.

Us Durham lot pretending to have spotted something....

The famous "Santa Clause" face in the landscape - can you see it?  Hint: It's upside down.