An increasing number of tourist resort towns in Japan have paved their streets with stone to improve their distinctive townscapes, with some successfully attracting more visitors.
However, they still face some challenges, as stone pavement is damaged more easily than asphalt.
Kannawa Onsen hot spring in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, where tourists enjoy bathing and meals, boasts streets paved with white-tinged granite for a total length of about 2.7 kilometers.
The municipal government embarked on the project about 10 years ago to create a townscape where people clad in geta sandals and traditional casual garments called yukata fit well with the scenery.
In the about 1.4 billion yen project to vitalize Kannawa Onsen resort, atmospheric streetlights were installed and a pocket park was made in the Kannawa hot spring area.
"It brightened up the town, and now we receive favorable comments from customers," said Hidetoshi Honda, 63, who works at a restaurant at the Ideyuzaka street in the town.
Among the Beppu Hatto, or eight representative hot springs in the city, Kannawa Onsen is especially known for its beautiful scenery with clouds of white steam.
Its original streets were paved with red-tinged asphalt to enhance the picturesque atmosphere. However, repeated excavation work for maintenance or replacement of hot spring water conduits underground left the street scarred with multiple patches of black asphalt.
The city therefore created an underground chamber to house all the conduits for easier management. It then marked some of the stones with a hot spring symbol to indicate the location of the conduits.
In 2003, before the project, the number of tourists was 2.98 million, but it increased by 220,000 in 2009 -- after the improvement of the townscape.
"The stone pavement fits the atmosphere of those baths that have existed since olden days, which contributes to making the hot spring town attractive," a municipal government official who was involved in the project said.
With the Tokyo Olympics two years away, the number of foreign tourists is expected to increase. Stone pavement contributes to creating a town richly imbued with a Japanese atmosphere, attracting people's attention.
In fiscal 2017, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry embarked on a project to renovate town scenery to improve the attractiveness of local tourist resorts.
The ministry designated 10 locations as model zones nationwide and plans to pave the streets for tourists with stone or stonelike materials at most of the selected zones.
Nagasaki, one of the model zones, already has a lot of historical stone pavement, such as Orandazaka (Dutch Slope) located in an area that used to be a foreign settlement. The city has paved streets with stones in many other places as well. The city is increasing stone-pavement locations such as streets with many restaurants and areas around Nagasaki Peace Park.
In Nagato, Yamaguchi Prefecture, there is a plan to pave with stones about 70 meters of road extending from a parking lot at Nagato Yumoto Onsen into a hot spring resort area.
"As this is the first main street to receive tourists [when they arrive], we'd like to provide them with an atmospheric mood," a city official who is in charge of the project said.
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