Because the number of bus services to Ikuno Silver Mine are limited, you can explore the township around Ikanochō Kuchiganaya (生野町口銀谷), close to JR Ikuno Station (生野駅).You will find traces of prosperity due to the mining industry in this town!
Here are some of the places that you can pay attention to (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ.
- Bike Rental from Asago City Tourist Information Center (朝来市観光情報センター)
- Kusaka Ryokan (日下旅館)
- The Building Material Special to Mining Town: Karami Stone
- The Old Train Track Along the Ichi River
Bike Rental from Asago City Tourist Information Center (朝来市観光情報センター)
At JR Ikuno Station’s west exit, you can rent a bicycle from the Asago City Tourist Information Center from 9 am to 4 pm between March to November. Please bring along your ID and remember to return the bike by 4:40 pm.
The below cost is for a one-day rental.
- Normal bicycle: 500 yen
- Electric-assisted bicycle: 1,000 yen
Helmets can be rented for free.
Kusaka Ryokan (日下旅館)
The first thing you will see once you get out of JR Ikuno Station from the east exit is the three-story Kusaka Ryokan.
A three-story building might sound like nothing now. Still, when the ryokan was expanded to the three-story building that we see now, there were only another two buildings along the Bantan Trainline (播但線) that stretches from Kinosaki (城崎) to Himeji (姫路)!
If you pay attention to the wall around the windows, you can see that some openings can’t be closed off. You might find it strange because luxurious ryokans like Kusaka should be trying their best to keep the guests nice and warm, not opening some holes on the wall to let the coldness come in.
The funny thing is that those holes keep the guests alive!
In the past, the charcoal fire was used for heating and hot pot cooking. So ventilation holes were indispensable to prevent those inside the buildings from getting carbon monoxide poisoning. At Kusaka Ryokan, these openings are of shapes such as cranes or clouds.
The Building Material Special to Mining Town: Karami Stone
As you walk around Kuchiginaya, you might notice that the architectural stones here are blacker than usual. And they seem to have a reddish color among the blackness as well.
In the process of extracting metal from the ore, rocks that are lighter in density will float above. These otherwise useless rocks were compressed and hardened into these Karami Stones (カラミ石), which can be used as building materials.
The Karami Stones that are cheap to get in a mining town like Ikuno are used for the walls and foundations of houses, wells, and waterways. The unique luster and texture are characteristic of the townscape in Kuchiginaya.
The Old Train Track Along the Ichi River
Along the Ichi River (市川), there is an abandoned train track that used to connect Ikuno Silver Mine to JR Ikuno Station from 1920 to the late 20th century is now a promenade that forms part of the representative landscape of the Kuchiginaya district.
There are also many other small attractions within a 30-minute walk from JR Ikuno Station. For more information, please refer to the map on the official website HERE.
Discover Other Attractions in Asago City
Ikuno Silver Mine isn’t the only attraction in Asago City worth your time. The city is also the home of one of the Three Castles Floating in the Sky in Japan!
To find out more awesome attractions close to Ikuno Silver Mine, please refer to our article on Asago City (=ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ.
