Yasu, the hot spring expert of Mount Aso: Business opportunities in well drilling after the earthquake

Text and photos by Joel Fukuzawa

Mount Aso, a place with frequent volcanic activity, may cause inconveniences in daily life, but on the flip side, the quality of its hot springs is among the best in Japan. The great Japanese literary figure Natsume Sōseki often visited Kumamoto in Kyushu and even used this hot spring town as the backdrop for his novels. Due to continuous development, the profession of "well drilling" has become a generational trade here.

Yasu Toshitaka, 38, returned to his hometown from the age of 20 to help his parents with local well drilling work. He said that before the earthquake, he would only get about three to four jobs a year, but since the earthquake, he gets four to five drilling jobs a month. Each drilling project is carried out by a team of four for exploration. From exploration and drilling to actually hitting the water source, it usually takes about one to two weeks. Yasu said that due to the significant geological shifts, places previously thought to have water sources might not yield water anymore, so they have to test repeatedly to find the actual water source.

When I met Yasu that day, his business card wasn’t for a drilling company, but for his own holistic health clinic (similar to Taiwan’s traditional martial arts centers). When asked why he only had a card for a holistic clinic, he shyly said that before the earthquake, there was less drilling work, so running the clinic was his main job. But now, due to the earthquake, he rarely goes to the clinic anymore.

According to statistics from the Aso City government, all hot spring inns in Aso are expected to reopen and return to their former state by this autumn.