Japan in Motion---Pro-web casting from across Japan.

Favorite Place

■Mt. Aso

Visitors to the southern island of Kyushu won’t want to miss Mt. Aso, one of Japan’s most spectacular sights. Mt. Aso is by some accounts the largest active volcanic caldera in the world, with a circumference of about 75 miles (120 kilometers) and a diameter of nearly 17 miles (27 kilometers) at its widest point.

　
aso

　But if you’re picturing a seething sea of magma you couldn’t be more wrong. Instead, the crater is a green, rolling landscape laced with roads and even rail, housing several towns. The largest of these, Aso, has a population of over 30,000. Large alpine pastures are used to graze cattle and horses, and the steep, verdant slopes of the caldera rim rise in the distance, with a large gap in the western wall where an ancient lake drained into the plain below.

　Mt. Aso is a somma volcano, which occurs when an active cone (or cones) forms inside an older caldera. Aso’s caldera was formed around 90,000 years ago in a colossal volcanic event that released material roughly equivalent to the mass of Mt. Fuji. Following this collapse, five cones formed in the caldera, only one of which is presently active. That cone, called Naka-dake, is one of the area’s principal attractions. From its base, either a twenty-minute walk or a ropeway will take you to the crater’s rim, where you gaze down into a roiling mass of steam and twisted stone, with a grim lake appearing through breaks in the vapor.

　As Kevin and Wuri both say in the Japan Lowdown video, and as countless other visitors to the area will attest, Mt. Aso should definitely be on your itinerary if you’re planning to visit Kyushu.

■Tohoku

　A superb antidote to the frenzy of Tokyo and Osaka or the acute self-consciousness of Kyoto, the Tohoku region welcomes visitors with some of Japan’s finest scenery and overlooked treasures. In the west, Tohoku is probably most famous as the setting for the haiku poet Basho’s most famous work, “ The Narrow Road to the Deep North .”

　Tohoku simply means “northeast,” and the region includes the six prefectures at the northeast end of the main island of Honshu. After Hokkaido, this is the least developed part of Japan, with less than one tenth of the country’s population scattered across more than a fifth of the its total landmass. Three mountain ranges run roughly parallel north to south, with the lowlands between given over to rice farming.

　There’s a lot to do and see in Tohoku, especially for visitors interested in Japanese history or the outdoors. Hiraizumi was once the seat of the northern branch of the powerful Fujiwara family, and at its height rivaled Kyoto in splendor and cultural attainments. Much of the city was razed in the late 12th century, but what remains is still worth seeing. Hiraizumi’s Konjiki-do, a small, exquisitely crafted temple covered in gold leaf, is one of the region’s best-known sights.

　The town of Kakunodate is famous for its stunning samurai quarter and gardens, as well as the wonderful flower-viewing festival held below the draping blossoms of its weeping cherry trees. On the northern coast, Aomori’s Nebuta festival is well known for its colorful paper floats, illuminated from within and spun through the streets of the city after sundown during the first week of August.

　In Yamagata prefecture, the Three Mountains of Dewa are three sacred peaks with a number of interesting shrines and temples, including one that you’ll need to clamber down steel ladders set into the rocks and ford a mountain stream to visit. The area has long been associated with the Yamabushi , the ascetic mountain priests of a uniquely Japanese sect of esoteric Buddhism, and even today lucky visitors may spot a group of the priests preparing for a local fire festival or entering the mountains for their religious training.

　For those with a more macabre turn of mind, Yamagata is also home to almost all of Japan’s sokushinbutsu, the remains of monks who deliberately mummified themselves through an elaborate and years-long regimen that was outlawed in the 19th century. The mummies can be seen at two temples in the Three Mountains of Dewa area, as well as at other less well-known temples in the prefecture.

　Tohoku winters are famously bitter. In fact, one common explanation for the peculiar local dialect is that people are unwilling to open their mouths and speak “normally” for much of the year. While the snow and cold can make for a wonderful experience at the regions many superb hot springs, it may also complicate some of your travel plans.

　Any good guidebook can help you plan a trip to Tohoku, and if you’re interested in seeing a side of Japan many travelers miss it’s definitely a destination you should keep in mind.

■Outdoor Activities in Japan

　Japan doesn’t strike many people as an obvious choice for an outdoor-oriented vacation, which is a shame. More than 70 percent of the country is forested mountainside, with trails ancient and new winding through passes and lowlands between mountain ranges.

　For most of the country’s history, the mountains were left to ascetic priests and other eccentric types, but in the 1880’s British mountaineer Walter Weston traveled the length of the country climbing peaks across Kyushu and Honshu and giving the Japan Alps their name. Nominally a Christian missionary, Weston was ultimately far less successful at propagating the gospel than at showing the Japanese an entirely new way of relating to their country’s landscape. Mountaineering and camping groups sprang up, and people began to appreciate nature for its beauty and recreational opportunities. With the outdoor boom of the last twenty years, there are more resources than ever before in Japan’s history for those wishing to enjoy its natural attractions.

Shooting Location: HACHIRO'S BAR

hachiro

>>Access
Takata Bld. 2F,5-15 Nakamachi, Nakaku, Hiroshima
TEL: 082-246-3086

Bus
Hiroshima Station====(Hiroden bus (green bus No. 3, 4, or 6), 20min.)====Fukuromachi===(on foot, 5 min.)===HACHIRO's BAR

Streetcar
Hiroshima Station====(Streetcar No.1, 25 min.)====Fukuromachi===(on foot, 5 min.)===HACHIRO's BAR

>>Open Hours
6:00 p.m. - 3:00 a.m.

>>Holidays
Sunday

>>Map
Hiroshima Downtown Map>>>Click here to view

-Matt Mangham