Akiyoshido cavePhoto: United States Marine Corps / Public domain
Checked · Researched, not yet visited · times from official timetables and our estimates · Takumi Yamada
A limestone cave system more than 11 km long, the second longest in Japan, in Mine City. The visitor route is about 1 km at a constant 17°C and takes about an hour. Regular hours 09:00–16:30 (08:30–17:30 at Golden Week, to 17:30 July–September); adult ¥1,600, ¥1,900 at Golden Week and in July–August. It needs a call of eight hours or more; a metered taxi is about ¥13,100 each way, by our estimate.
- 3 hr 30 min door to door needs a 5.5-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
Where the 3 hr 30 min goes
The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside. The minutes are our estimates from timetables and maps, not timed on the ground.
If your ship is late, cut the 1 hr 50 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.
Routes that already include it
Finished days timed from official timetables and our estimates, with this stop in them.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~2hThe castle-town lanes
Three lanes, Kikuya, Iseya and Edoya, run between white plaster walls and black-tiled merchant houses, with natsumikan trees over the garden walls.
See the detail
See · ~1hHagi Castle ruins and Shizuki Park
Mori Terumoto built his castle here in 1604, at the foot of Mt Shizuki.
See the detail
See · ~1.5hShokasonjuku and Shoin Shrine
A wooden house of about 50 square metres, one eight-mat room and a later extension, where Yoshida Shoin taught from 1857.
See the detail