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Saturday, September 17, 2011

Iwaki City Coal and Fossil Museum

Iwaki City is an erstwhile coal mining city. The Joban Coal mine,the biggest coalfield in entire Honshu, was once Iwaki city's major industry. In the 1950's the town was a booming coal mining centre and continued till its closure in the 1960's when Japan's coal dependency shifted to oil.
The Iwaki city Coal and Fossil museum was set up in August 1984. 


The Joban Coal Mines are recreated here to display the development of the mining industry in Iwaki.
Various stages of coal mining activity are displayed through the various exhibits. 

Visitors can go down a 600 meter shaft by an escalator in the coal mine replica to have a first hand experience. 
Also on display are residential houses of coal mine workers. 


The Fossil Exhibition room has a collection of various fossils found in and around Iwaki. Fossils collected internationally are also on display. 


A long necked dinosaur " Futabasuzukiryu" discovered in 1968 in Iwaki is on display.
Also on display is "Mamenchisaurus", which is said to be the single largest complete dinosaur found in Asia.
"Iwakikujira", the Iwaki whale which supposedly lived about 4 million years ago, was found in 1980 during a construction activity in a local High school. Visitors can learn about the evolution of life from the various exhibits here. 


Opening Hours: 9:00-17:00 hrs ( Closed on third Tuesday of each month) 


Admission : Adults-630 yen, Students-420 yen

Address : 3-1 Mukoda, Yumoto-machi, Joban, Iwaki City, Fukushima 
Phone : 0246-42-3155

Access:   10 minutes from Iwaki-Yumoto IC by car. 




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