Following my post from March 29, 2025, I’d like to share the rest of our trip to Kumamoto.
Looking back, I realize that most of the places I visited this time were off the beaten path. Still, there was at least one must-see destination in Kumamoto Prefecture: Mt. Aso, in the northeast of the prefecture. This massive active volcano is famous for its enormous caldera, which measures about 25 kilometers across and is considered one of the largest in the world. The central cone group includes five peaks, among them Taka-dake (1,592 meters, the highest) and Naka-dake, which remains active today (see the photo below). The Nakadake trail is often closed when volcanic gases are too strong or when the activity level rises.
But I can’t end here, since this is a railway blog. So let me also introduce one more tramcar of the Kumamoto City Tram. Please look at the top photo. This is Unit 9202 of the 9200 series. The series was introduced in 1992 to strengthen transport capacity, and only five units were manufactured by ALNA. Each car is mid-sized (13.5 meters in length) and mounted on two bogies with double axles. They are equipped with a variable-frequency control system and two 100 kW induction motors. Note the inclined front glass, which also functions as a panoramic window. This design closely resembles that of the Toei 8500 series, which entered service in the early 1990s, suggesting that such styling was a popular trend at the time.
In Kumamoto, I was able to enjoy both a must-see natural wonder and a distinctive tramcar.
