Thats a surprise because theres already such an attraction downstream. The mine has two entrances. North-East and South. The South one where the river runs E-W is very touristy and has a little mineralogy museum out the front and a even silly little minecart you ride from the admission booth to the entrance.

The North-East entrance, where the valley runs more N-S is where these pics are from, at the stop the local train no longer goes to. There are about 5 elderly residents living there at a guess in a newish “manshon” building, serviced by the town downstream and a lone vending machine overlooking the factory complex. Apart from that, it was basically ALL haikyo up in Ashio proper when I went last year.

Of course, the world heritage status thing doesn’t surprise me. Japanese haikyo blogs have been scathingly critical of Tottori? prefecture somehow nabbing the status for their silver mine back in 2007, alongside many disappointed reviews from tourists. It slipped into the list, through many people’s eyes, without truly fulfilling all the UNESCO criteria. Its become the laughing stock of the list.

So knowing that something uninspiring can slip by, the truly outstanding sites like Ashio and Hashima are now seen as pretty much a gimme. Espcially given the impressive mark the Ashio site has left on Japanese history via the pollution problems (in Hashima’s case, it’d be the human population density world record they set there).

As an added cherry on top, Ashio’s valley is just stunningly beautiful.

Still a fun trip, got many nice landscape photos and shots of some other stuff, but it already feels tourist-y.

I’ll have to do some serious talking to try and convince her to “break the rules” and climb a few fences, but I should be able to manage it.

Gazzy- cheers.

Dave- The music is Autorock by Mogwai, from the album Mr. Beast. Glad you like it and the site.

great adventures. I’ve done some urban exploration in my city and the thrill of being there, surrounded by the past makes me always imagine what was goin on when the place was new.

Thanks again