Day 19: Akiyoshido National Park



I decided to try to make my way to Akiyoshidai National Park today, a 2 hour bus/train ride away. Unfortunately, I want not the most efficient with my train/bus timing, and missed a couple trains by just a few minutes and was left waiting a while. 


In Yamaguchi, I missed the bus by 3 minutes, and the next time was 2 hours later, so I ended up wandering around town for a while. It was a cool town though. Lots of shrines of course and surrounded by beautiful peaks.


I finally got the right bus at 1, and made it up to Akiyoshidai. I knew there were 2 remaining buses to my next connection giving me either 2 or 4 hours here. The recommended amount of time here is 2 hours, although I could spend all day. One of the drawbacks of solo travel is that I’m a lot less willing to push to take the final bus (especially having missed a couple this morning). It’s one thing with someone else to have to take a taxi or beg for a ride somewhere, but alone it’s so much more stressful, so I try to never take the last bus anywhere. That meant I had about 2 hours to spend at the park. A little less because buses here leave on time to early, there is no running to catch the bus. It will be gone. Especially in an area where there are few foreign tourists, I was not going to risk it. 



I heavily debated coming here, knowing it was a long ride and especially after missing a few buses, but it did not disappoint. I only wish I had not missed my first bus and had more time because it was incredible. 


First is Akiyoshido, Japans longest and largest limestone cave. The cafe is 300 feet (a foot ball field) wide and 8.79 km long (5.6 miles). I was able to walk the first km, which is absolutely gorgeous. The entrance has a deep blue stream springing from it and there are so many gorgeous geological features within it. 




Next I made it to the Akiyoshidai plateau, and wow. It was so incredibly gorgeous. It was a field of papas grass and other fall grasses and flowers just changing yellow for the autumn season, intermixed with large, jutting limestones. I could have spent all day hiking those gorgeous trails through the mountains. I’m sure the biological diversity there is incredible. It was so worth the multiple missed trains and buses. 











I wandered my way back with plenty of time to catch the bus back to the next couple trains. Grateful for the time I had and to not be stressed about being stuck in the middle of nowhere. 


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