Kusasenri-ga-hama

photo by Young Juan · CC BY 3.0

Double crater from 30,000 years ago: 785,000 m² of grassland, two lakes and the Komatateyama hill.

It is a grassy basin about one kilometre across, 785,000 m², inside a double crater that formed about 30,000 years ago as a side vent of Eboshidake. In the middle rises Komatateyama, a 50-metre hillock (the remains of a dacite lava dome blown apart from within), and on either side of it lie two small lakes: the western one fills the floor of the outer crater, the eastern one the inner crater. Horses and cows at pasture, and behind them the plume of the active Nakadake.

Kusasenri lies within Aso-Kuju National Park (established in 1934) and within the Aso UNESCO Global Geopark (recognised in September 2014), which lists it as one of its official geosites together with the nearby Nakadake crater. The 阿蘇火山博物館, on the edge of the grassland, houses the Mount Aso Visitor Centre on the ground floor, opened by the Ministry of the Environment in March 2019 with free admission, and paid galleries on the volcano's geology on the upper floors.

ℹ️ 阿蘇火山博物館: 9:00–17:00, last entry 16:30, adults 1,300 yen (discounts for children/seniors); the Visitor Centre on the ground floor is free. ⚠️ No official source read today (03/09/2026) reports a closure of 草千里ヶ浜: the level 2 restriction only concerns the radius of about one kilometre around the Nakadake crater (1次規制 from 02/09/2026), and Kusasenri is a few minutes by bus further down, outside that radius; the museum, right on site, was keeping normal hours when checked. That said, access to the whole volcano area depends on the alert level and can change without notice: check on the day on https://www.aso-volcano.jp/ and on 気象庁 (JMA) before setting out, as for the crater.

🚉 Bus from/to Aso Station stop · 7 min walk

Sources: aso-geopark.jp · asomuse.jp · asomuse.jp · env.go.jp · aso-geopark.jp · jma.go.jp · city.aso.kumamoto.jp

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