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Akiyoshidai Plateau

HOME > Japan’s Local Treasures > Akiyoshidai Plateau

Yamaguchi’s fantastical landscape of limestone rocks and caves

Yamaguchi Prefecture

Otherworldly and mesmerizing, Akiyoshidai in Yamaguchi Prefecture is one of Japan’s largest karst plateaus. Its thousands of protruding limestone rocks, scattered across a rolling grassy landscape, are formations of what was once a coral reef around 350 million years ago. Shaped by the elements of nature, the limestone often contains Paleozoic fossils, fragments of history preserved in stone.

Beneath the plateau lies a vast network of limestone caves known as Akiyoshido, another natural fantastical phenomenon, filled with stalactites, stalagmites and pools of still water.

Akiyoshidai is a Quasi-National Park and a designated Special Natural Monument of Japan, and there are many ways you can take in its 350-million-year history. You could take a tour on an all-terrain Segways, or rent a cross bike or electric cross bike for ease and speed!