2000 Usu Eruption Disaster Ruins was added to Your Favorites!
Shikotsu-Tōya NP., Hokkaido
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Hot mudflow swept Konomi Bridge off old National Route 230 and about 90 m downstream, where it smashed into the second floor of a 5-story public apartment block. The bridge and impact scars remain in place.
Yasuragi no Ie was a public bath where local residents and visitors mingled. When hot mudflow overflowed its channel, it forced the entrance door inward; the damaged bathhouse still shows the flow’s force.
These ruins weren’t gathered into a museum: as new mudflow-control works were built, the community chose to preserve some damaged buildings in the landscape. The bathhouse, homes and bridge remain within the erosion-control area.
The damage was severe, but there were no human casualties: forecasts and rapid evacuation before Usu’s first 2000 eruption helped protect people. At peak, 15,815 people were covered by evacuation orders or advisories.
Two nearby 2000 craters are nicknamed Yu-kun and Tama-chan, borrowing 有 and 珠 from Usu’s name. The largest, Yu-kun, now holds an emerald-green crater lake.
A snow-free strip beside Tama-chan crater has a surprising cause: hot-spring pipes run underneath. Water above 100°C is used for binary power generation, then sent on to hotels in the hot-spring town.
Around Yu-kun, vegetation tells a recovery story: windblown poplar seeds began taking root on the crater’s outer slope in 2001. Photos from 2024 show much fuller growth than in 2008.
