The remains of quarries are found all over Japan, but Takahata stone is a tuff made from volcanic ash accumulated and is easy to process and has a warm yellow color. It had been used in the horizontal-hole type mound tomb. Human power is great, because it cuts mountains vertically and excavates caves in a straight line and used to dig them by hand. The inside of the cave is kept at a low temperature, so I thought that it could be used as a storage for Takahata wine, which would lead to income for tourism.
Former Takahata Station of the railroad, that used to transport agricultural products from Takahata Town, is preserved, but it was built with only warm Takahata stone. It has nothing to do with this, JR Takahata Station (called Taiyokan) looks like a fairy tale and has a day-trip hot spring facility inside, but I couldn’t understand what was the concept of these combination. Only the impression of strangeness remained.
Detour
Takahata Town is located on a large fan-shaped terrain. I learned at school that this terrain is well drained and suitable for fruit cultivation. That is exactly the case, and grape cultivation is particularly popular. I highly recommend tasting at the Takahata winery, but I bought something expensive. I realized that the technology of Japanese red wine has improved considerably.
