A place where you can encounter two wonders of Toyama Bay 【Uozu Buried Forest Museum

  • Toyama
  • Experience Gifu
The Uozu Buried Forest Museum is an unusual museum where visitors can encounter two wonders of Toyama Bay: buried forests, which are designated as a special natural monument of Japan, and mirages. The museum is divided into free and paid areas, and visitors can see various exhibits in each pavilion, including the entrance hall, theme pavilion, underwater pavilion, dry pavilion, and dome pavilion.
Buy a ticket and let's go!
First of all, what is a "buried forest"? It literally means "buried forest. Buried forests are found all over the world, where entire forests were buried under the ground or water due to volcanic pyroclastic flows or rising seawater. The age of burial varies, ranging from several hundred years ago to tens of thousands of years ago, but the one discovered at the bottom of the sea in Uozu City, Toyama Prefecture, is believed to have been buried approximately 2,000 years ago and was designated as a special natural monument in 1955.
Underwater Exhibition Hall
In the Underwater Exhibition Hall, the buried forest is preserved and displayed as it is in a large pool 8 m long, 16 m wide, and 2.5 m deep. The largest tree root preserved here is about 10 meters from end to end, with a diameter of about 2 meters at the trunk, and is estimated to be over 500 years old. This pool was excavated in 1952, and the tree roots inside have been preserved as they were at that time. It is quite a mysterious sight to see a huge cedar tree with its roots underwater, undisturbed by decay. Visitors can also see the fantastic upside-down roots reflected on the surface of the water from underground.
This is what it looks like from the basement
In the drying exhibition hall, visitors can actually touch and feel the wood as it was 2,000 years ago. In 1930, when the coast was dug down for the construction of Uozu Port, a large amount of buried forest was excavated from the stratum below sea level, attracting the attention of academic societies and others. Approximately 230 tree roots were discovered, but only a few remain today, in addition to those on display in the museum. The ones in the Arid Exhibition Hall are their precious materials.
Drying Exhibition Hall
In the Mirage Corner, visitors can learn when and how mirages are seen and how they occur. In the hands-on corner, there is a "mirage reproduction device" that allows visitors to observe a mini mirage generated by the same mechanism as the real thing, a device to learn about light refraction, and a mirage simulator called "Know Mirage". In the high-definition hall on the second floor of the Theme Pavilion, mirages projected on a large screen on a 300-inch high-definition screen are a powerful sight to behold.
Cafe "KININAL
Visitors can receive a discount on the museum entrance fee if they bring a receipt from the KININAL café, so it is recommended that they first try the photogenic, fruit-focused sweets before going to the museum.
For more information about KININAL, please refer to this article!
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If you are in the area, why not stop by and see, touch, and learn about the wonders of Toyama Bay?
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