A Walk Across Akiyoshidai

Akiyoshidai, a karst of about 100 square kilometers in central Yamaguchi Prefecture is the largest limestone plateau in Japan.

About 300 million years ago it was a coral reef under the ocean. With limestone being soluble in water karsts tend to have lots of underground water and therefore lots of caves and caverns. Underneath Akiyoshidai is Akiyoshido, the largest cavern in all of Japan.

The surface of the plateau has lots of sinkholes which makes for a very uneven landscape. There are also loads of rock pinnacle sticking up.

In the late autumn when I walked across it there was a lot of Japanese pampas grass growing. It is a very unusual landscape for Japan. It is semi artificial in that every year the dried grass covering the plateau is burned which tends to inhibit the growth of trees and stops the landscape reverting to forest.