Kuji Amber Museum is located in Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, which is the only area in Japan where amber is found. There are a couple different buildings to the museum and most of the exhibits had English explanations. I think they also have an area where you can mine for amber, but it was raining hard so we didn't explore outside much. We did venture into an old mine that was part of the museum. We learned a lot about amber, but unless you are already traveling to this area, it probably isn't worth a special trip. The store had quite a large variety of items, but nothing that I just had to have...plus traditional amber's not really my color and the fancy colored amber was expensive!
Ryusendo Cave is one of the Three Great Limestone Caves in Japan. It's located near Iwaizumi in Iwate Prefecture. Estimated to be over 5,000 meters in length, only about 3,000 meters of the cave have been explored, and about 700 meters are open to the public. The path through the cave passes alongside an underground river and three underground lakes. The lakes are 35, 38 and 98 meters deep. The deepest underground lake known in Japan (120 meters) is also located in Ryusendo Cave, but it is beyond the tour area.
The cave path is easy to traverse, but there are lots of stairs, some low ceilings and BATS! Many areas of the trail are covered by plastic or screens to protect tourists from poo, I did most of my spelunking with my hood up, just in case! The cave is illuminated by beautiful lights that constantly change color.
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| Dragons painted on the fence. |
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| Haha! |
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| Sign says "Note on the head" to warn about low ceiling... |
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| Deepest Lake, lights help emphasize the transparency of the water. |
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| "The tertiary lake was discovered by a submersible survey in 1967. It is currently the final point of the sightseeing course. Several additional subterranean lakes are known to exist within, and surveys of them are currently underway." |
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| Tight corners! |
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| Get skinny! |
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| Looking down on the lake from WAY above. |
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| There were quite a few flying around! |
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| Drinking water...straight from a spring I'm guessing! |
On our way home we stopped in at Dohtonbori in Hachinohe for okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes), I think I've described them in a previous post...
We drove for a long time today, we took non-toll roads. From base to Kuji Amber Museum was just over 2 hours (88 km/55 mi) and from there to the cave was another 90 minutes (52 km/32 mi).
Kuji Amber Museum GPS coordinates: 40.169887, 141.723732
Entrance fee ¥500 per person.
Ryusendo Cave GPS coordinates: 39.860192, 141.796948
Entrance fee ¥1,000 per person.
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| Green - Dohtonbori. Orange - Kuji Amber Museum. Pink - Ryusendo Cave. |
Up next: Oshima Island
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