Japanese
September 10, 2003: Touching the secret of the earth

Behind us is today7s destination, volcano Aso.
The large caldera is a fresh view to the ladies.
We head to the top of Aso mountain.
Here we are.
Fume rises from the crack of the earth to make the ladies shout of joy.
Can your film and video cover all Aso?
We-were-there-picture. Doris bought a piece of sulphur crystal, a present from the earth.
They learned the meaning of the "shelters" and surprised.

The desolate scene is still a part of Japan.
Is this the closest point to the core of the earth?
Green grass is good, anyway.
We came down to Kusa-Senri (Grass plain) to relax at a park.
Polygon pillar stones in the park were created not by human, but by the volcano.
In the morning, we all prepared the lunch box and we enjoyed it here.

The grass plain Kusa-Senri holds shallow water in the bottom.
A shot on the back ground of Eboshi hill.
Horse riding is available as well.
We turned around the water and said hello to the cows. Doris hesitatingly touches the cow. It shows no concern.
Good-bye Aso and...
Hello Hacchoubaru Geothermal power plant.
The energy source of the plant is molten rock, or lava, in the depth of the earth, some 2,000 meters down the ground. English version video helped the ladies to understand the mechanism.
The guide explains the plant using cut models of the production well. The pipe will soon be choked like this by the impurities in the hot water.
The high pressure steam from magma turns the rotor connected to the dynamo.
Two set of dynamo will generate 110,000 KWH power, the largest in Japan.
The power plant is usually unmanned. Today, some engineers work for maintenance, however.
The facility is No.1 in Japan, and technology is No.1 in the world, they said. I hope power plant like this will increase much more. Torrential rain, a part of typhoon #14, attacked us on our way back home. We dropped in a spa near home.
Today, we visited "inside" of the earth, Volcano Aso and a geothermal power plant. Thank you very much our mother earth.
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