2026 Ashio Town Summer Cooling Festival: A Full Day Course
This one-day course centers on the 'Ashio Town Summer Cooling Festival' (August 13, 2026, 15:00-21:00), held at the multipurpose plaza in front of the Ashio Government Office in Ashio, Nikko City. Once flourishing as one of Japan's leading copper mines, Ashio is a mountain town where Western-style buildings and railway bridges from the Meiji and Taisho eras still quietly stand today. During the day, experience the history of mining at Ashio Copper Mine Tourism, where a trolley car takes you into the tunnel, and take in the atmosphere of modern industrial heritage at the red iron Furukawa Bridge and the Western-style Kakemizu Club. At Ashio Station, on the local line running through the gorge, you can enjoy the air of a retro station building. In the evening, once lanterns light up the plaza as it starts to cool down and the Bon Odori drums begin echoing through the mountains, the Summer Cooling Festival gets into full swing. Enjoy a leisurely mountain summer festival with your family, cooled by the pleasant night breeze.
Schedule
Ride a trolley into the mine tunnel and trace mining history from the Edo era to the Showa era through mannequin displays
A Western-style building built by Furukawa Mining in the Meiji era, an exotic remnant amid the mountains
The red iron bridge that supported the copper mine's peak years, beautifully contrasting with the gorge
Take a break at a retro mountain station house and soak in the charm of a gorge railway journey
A summer cooling festival held in a mountain plaza, with Bon Odori dancing beginning at dusk
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