ABUTA, Hokkaido — Lake Toya is silent. The smell of sulfur is heavy in the air.
About this time of year the lakeside resort town usually echoes with the din of visitors. But Mount Usu's inopportune March 31 eruption sent locals scurrying to shelters and has kept the lifeblood of the economy — tourists — at bay.
Abuta is part of the Shikotsu-Toya National Park and home to the Lake Toya hot springs district — the area hardest hit by the eruption. Nearly 2,700 residents of Abuta remain evacuees, more than two months after four craters opened up, tossing ash and rocks into the air.