In the Koriyama area, Fukushima prefecture, you can experience Jomon village life. Put on Jomon togs (clothes), and make fire the prehistoric way. Or try your hand at making Jomon clay vessels, bows and arrows, cooking Jomon-style food, making jewellery out of stone and much more.
Place: “Natural experience learning-village Joumon no sato”, Koriyama Area/Tamura City
1-200 applicants accepted from April – November. Reserve at least 10 days ahead. Summer vacation period is especially busy.
Time required: 1-day experience : 1,500 yen – , 1 night experience : 5,000 yen.
Contact person: Genkou Koishizawa
Address: Funehiki-machi,tTamura-gun, Ooaza kitakamata aza Shimomadate
Tel: (0247)82-3812 Fax: (0247)82-3812 More details at their website.
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Visit Sarashina Village (Sarashina no Sato Kodai Taiken Park) in Nagano prefecture which is a recreated Jomon village theme park based on the artefacts uncovered in the the ruins unearthed in this area dating back to 3,000 years ago. In the village, you can see pit dwellings and raise floor warehouses. Surrounded by forests and old farms. Every October, an event called “Sarashina Joumon Festival” is held during which you can experience lifestyle from the Jomon period along with cooking from that era (grilled wild board meat, millet pastries, along with ancient weaving, fishing and hunting techniques. At the adjacent At the historical archive center, pottery, earthenware and clay dolls excavated in the area dating from the Jomon are on display. In the center’s picture room in that center, visitors may discover what life was then at that time and watch a drama with the same historical background. Learn how to make pottery, jewelry, weaving or stone carving using techniques from the Jomon era, as well as how to strike a fire in the study room. Access: Obasute station, Chikuna, Nagano prefecture. Visit the Sarashina no Sato website for more information.
Look out for pottery-making and pottery-firing classes at the Niigata Prefectural Museum of History.
Tokyo National Museum
The Japanese Archaeology gallery has an excellent collection of Jomon ceramics from around Japan, including pottery and dogu clay figurines.
Access: Ueno Park, a short walk from Park exit of Ueno station.
Meiji University Archaeology Museum (Meijii Daigaku Kokogaku Hakubutsukan)
Display of Jomon artifacts, along with earlier Palaeolithic and later Yayoi objects ,excavated by the university at sites throughout Japan.
Access: Ochanomizu station (subway and Chuo line) is about 200 m from the university. Going up Meidai-dori from the station, the museum is in a modern complex on the right (the first building).
Yoyogi-Hachiman shrine In the grounds of this shrine, next to Yoyogi Park in Shinjuku, a circular thatched Jomon house has been recreated to mark where people lived 4, 500 years ago. Access: Go to Yoyogi-Hachiman station on the Odakyu line, or Yoyogi-koen station on the Chiyoda line. Then walk up Yamate-dori to the shrine gate.
Higashiyama Kaizuka Koen
A Jomon-period house has been reconstructed on the site of an archaeological excavation of a kaizuka (shellmound) in a small children’s park in Meguro city.
Access: Walking distance from Ikejiri-Ohashi station on the Tokyu Shin-Tamagawa line, one stop from Shibuya station.
Heritage of Japan 