It's always good to know something about the ground under your feet when you visit a new destination.
Geology, in a very real sense, is the foundation of the former renown and wealth of Oya-machi, a town with the dimensions of a village in Tochigi Prefecture. Built on a plateau of Oya-ishi, or Oya stone, the village sees few commercial visitors these days, but for those with an interest in architecture and rock formations, the site has much to offer. A porous, easily cut stone created from lava and ash deposited over the area from a submarine volcanic eruption some 20 million years ago (give or take a few millennia).
Deposits of sand, pebbles and ash compacted into this volcanic rock that has become the leitmotif of Oya-machi. It may have seen better days, but the town has benefited to some extent from the absence of the kind of subterranean industrialization that would have left a film of dust over the area. Today, the town manages rather well on a mixture of agriculture and light, sustainable tourism. There are no business hotels in the area, few restaurants and cafes, but the town is gently animated by the activities of stone artisans and the gentle trickle of visitors.