Most visitors to Akiyoshidai Quasi-National Park come for the otherworld panoramas and underground adventures in this geologically fascinating karst landscape. But the park is also full of life. Hidden among the grasses singing in the wind are wildflowers, birds, dragonflies, butterflies and beetles. In a lower valley of the park, there’s a forest sheltering a small river filled with mosses, ferns, and beautiful damselflies. Follow the river into Akiyoshi Cave for another world below ground inhabited by bats and more. Here are just a few of the creatures and flowers you can see in a few hours’ visit in August.
秋吉台国定公園—Akiyoshidai Kokutei Kōen—Akiyoshidai Quasi-National Park
秋吉台—Akiyoshidai—Akiyoshidai Plateau
秋芳洞—Akiyoshidō—Akiyoshi Cave
Getting there
Akiyoshidai is in the city of Mine, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Best visited by car, bus accessible by bus. The pedestrian thoroughfare that connects the entrance of Akiyoshi Cave to restaurants, shopping, parking and the bus center is a 40-minute bus ride (1,170 yen, 1 per hour) from the Shin-Yamaguchi Shinkansen station or a 60-minute bus ride (1,210 yen, 1 per 2 hours) from Yamaguchi Station in Yamaguchi City. From Mine Station, it’s a 25-minute bus ride (200 yen, 1 every 90 minutes).
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/vod/jtripplan/2059062/