Hello everyone, how are you？
Summer is here, it is warm in the sun, but nice in the shade especially by the water.
If you come to Aso and drive around the caldera, you might notice that the topography of southern part of caldera is different from the one at the northern part of caldera.
Aso had 4 massive eruptions in the past between 270,000 and 90,000 years ago.
Geologists think the southern part of caldera was made from the earlier eruptions and the northern part was made from the latest and largest eruption 90000 years ago.
As I live in Aso city which is located at the northern part of caldera, I see the bottom of caldera is quite flat , the top of the outer-rim is flat as well.
But once I go to the southern part of caldera, the shape of outer rim is rough, rocks are sticking.
The caldera is not flat either, it had been eroded by Shirakawa river going through the center.
Southern part of Aso caldera has more than 10 cold water springs and these waters make Shirakawa river.
So, we cannot believe right away that people in this area suffered from getting water.
In fact, because of this topography, it was very difficult to get the water from Shirakawa river which is running at the bottom of the valley in old days. And the pioneers made irrigations from the water springs which is called Ide in Japanese.
The beautiful view with rice field we see nowadays in this area had been made by a lot of effort from them.
Shirakawa suigen is a water spring at the southern part of Aso caldera, very famous tourist place. You can see the water is coming out from the ground clearly.
60 tons of water is coming out every minute. It sounds a lot but it might be difficult to guess how much…. Once you see the water running out from the spring, you will know.
It is a lot of water! Actually, this is only the half amount of water from Shirakawa suigen spring.
People keep showing up with big tanks and fill the fresh water.
My son also filled his drink bottle. Water was so mild and in good temperature.
The water temperature is 13 ℃ all year around.
Here is another water spring I like. “Takezaki suigen “
It is like more hidden place and there are not many tourists. The water amount from Takezaki spring is actually double of Shirakawa suigens’.
The water from this spring goes into a long irrigation canal, which is very important for the agriculture in this area.
If you come to Aso, it might be interesting for you to do the water quest 😀
You will often see shrines by the water springs.
Let’s find the water springs and history and culture at the southern part of Aso caldera!
Kana
