For a couple of weeks now, tourists have been able to peer down into the mouth of the Aso volcano to see the emerald green caldera pool shown in this photo (posted May 1).
At the moment, however, the level of noxious gasses being emitted from the volcano is high and tourists are not being allowed to go up to the lip of the volcano:
http://www.aso.ne.jp/~volcano/
My understanding is that levels can change fairly quickly so you can never be 100% sure that you’ll be able to look into the volcano.
By the way, I’m sharing the address (above) of the Japanese web page, which has a link to the English information. The reason is that that once you get to the English page, there’s no link to the Japanese information (in case you want to compare expressions in the two languages or double check the meaning of an English expression that strikes you as odd, etc.). This is a pet peeve of mine. People in Japan who make English-language web pages often seem to assume that English speakers couldn’t possible have any use for the original Japanese information. :(
– Kirk
