From Wikitravel

Iwami (石見) is a city in Shimane.

[edit] Understand

The name Iwami refers to both a region of Shimane Prefecture and a town. The town merged in 2004 with another town and a village to form the new town of Ōnan (邑南町, Ōnan-chō).

Omori Town (near Iwami Town) is a fantastic old silver mining town, which accounted for about 1/3 of the world's silver production at its peak. Omori and the surrounding area had hundreds of silver mines of various sizes, now known as Iwami Ginzan (石見銀山). Iwami Ginzan was made a World Heritage Site in June 2007.

[edit] Get in

[edit] Get around

Several buses go up the main street. There are also bicycles for rent. I think you pay the rental fee at the gas station across the street. You can also walk, but it is a mostly uphill walk for about 2 km from the main starting point to the main mine.

[edit][add listing] See

Take a beautiful walk down the old single-street town up the hill on the way to the main mine - several old merchants homes / samurai homes and other buildings are restored. Beautiful houses. Tremendous wealth here at one time. There are several open houses along the way that you can pay to enter. You can also buy a pass that gives you admission to all of the open houses.

• Old Court House. Now a public hall. Has a 3D display of the geography around. Very interesting. Also a recreated scene of some miscreant receiving his sentence... must've been quite a bit of crime during the silver rush.... Easy to imagine this place in the boom years - like some scene from a Western, with swordsmen instead of gunslingers.

• Gohyaku-Rakan[1]. 500 of little buddha statues hidden in shrines cut into the sides of the hills on the way up the road... quite cool.

• Ryugenji Mabu Is the only mine shaft currently open to the public. It offers quite a nice, cool, spooky walk underground. It's only a fraction of the tunnels that were dug around here.

[edit][add listing] Do

[edit][add listing] Buy

Kunkendo is a very coolly stylish cafe and design gallery featuring handcrafted glassware, pottery, clothing, and decor. In Omori Town, Open 10AM-6Pm daily, closed Wednesdays, tel. 0854-89-0077.

[edit][add listing] Eat

[edit][add listing] Drink

[edit][add listing] Sleep

I didn't see any hotels in the immediate Iwami Ginzan area. Prior to being named a World heritage site, not many people outside of Shimane knew about it, so the infrastructure for dealing with lots of tourists is just now being developed.

[edit] Links

UNESCO site for Iwami Ginzan [2]
Shimane Prefecture site for Iwami Ginzan [3]

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