Mount Aso is famous enough that when people think of it, they picture the Nakadake Crater—a spot that’s hard to miss in the Aso area. The mountain range here is collectively known as Mount Aso, running east-west with the five peaks of Aso—Mount Takadake, Mount Nekodake, Mount Nakadake, Mount Eboshidake, and Mount Kishimadake—at its heart. A magnificent caldera extends across this area, measuring 24 km north-south and 18 km east-west. It offers wonderful scenery, including the crater basin and the outer ring of mountains that surround it.

Mount Nakadake has a vast eruptive crater that is 600 m in diameter, 130 m deep, and has a circumference of 4 km. When you approach this crater, you can see the volcano furiously spouting smoke as the ground rumbles. Visitors soon realize Aso is very much alive. You can also enjoy nature’s interweaving art of exposed lava and bare rock faces with the beautiful striped patterns of the crater walls. The remains of seven craters seem to surround the current active crater, allowing you to encounter the past of this volcano that has been violently active for a long time. You may not be able to approach the crater if the volcano is particularly active.

*Entry into the crater is affected by the weather conditions. Please check the Aso Volcano Disaster Prevention Council website (http://www.aso.ne.jp/~volcano/eng/index.html) for details before your trip.