Akiyoshi-dai Travel Video Guide

Akiyoshi-dai Travel Itinerary

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Midway between Yamaguchi and the northern coast city of Hagi , in the heart of the prefecture, are the vast caverns and rock-strewn tablelands of AKIYOSHI-DAI . This rather bleak landscape has been designated a quasi-national park, but is not sufficiently impressive to go out of your way for.

The park's main attraction is Akiyoshi-do (daily 8.30am-4.30pm; Y1240), the largest limestone cave in Japan, stretching around 10km underground, although only about a tenth of it is open to the public. The main entrance is a five-minute walk from Akiyoshi-do bus station along a pedestrianized street of giftshops, a sure sign that the cave gets its full complement of tour groups. Look out for the cheeky He-no-Kappa statues, a bug-eyed water sprite clutching his penis.

A raised walkway through a copse of lofty, moss-covered pine trees provides an atmospheric introduction to the gaping cavern mouth. However, inside, the booming loudspeakers of competing tour-group leaders, combined with unimaginative lighting, detracts from the huge cave's potential impact. It took more than 300,000 years of steady erosion and dripping to create some of the rock walls and formations, which have since been given names like the "Big Mushroom" and the "Straw-Wrapped Persimmon", in an effort to spark interest.

From the bowels of

the earth an elevator whisks you up to the alternative cave entrance Yano-ana , a short walk from the Akiyoshi-dai, Japan's largest karst plateau. A lookout point commands an impressive view of rolling hills spread out in all directions, and there are a range of hikes you can follow across the 130 square kilometres of the plateau. If you return to the cave in the elevator, you'll be charged Y100, but you can just as easily either walk down the hill or catch a bus back to the station.

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