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AIKAWA |
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After gold and silver were discovered in 1601, the population of
AIKAWA rocketed from a hamlet of just ten families to 100,000 people, of
whom many were convict labourers. Now a mere tenth of that size, there's
nothing specific to see in Aikawa beyond the mine museum a few
kilometres out of town. Nevertheless, it's not an unattractive place for
an overnight stay once you get off the main road and delve among the
temples, shrines and wooden houses pressed up against the hillside.
The road from Sawata enters Aikawa from the southeast beside the Sado
Royal Hotel Mancho and then turns north along the seafront, past the bus
terminal and skirts round the main town centre. Just beyond the
municipal playing fields, at the north end of Aikawa, a right turn leads
up a steep narrow valley to the old gold mines of Sado Kinzan (April-Oct
8am-5pm; Jan-March, Nov & Dec 8.30am-4.30pm; ¥700). The Sodayu tunnel,
one of the mine's richest veins, is now a museum showing working
conditions during the Edo period, complete with sound effects and life-size
mechanical models, followed by a small exhibition with equally
imaginative dioramas of the miners at work. You can reach Sado Kinzan by
local bus (line #21) from Ryotsu (4 daily; 1hr 20min) and Aikawa (8
daily; 15min), though for most of the year these only run on weekends
and national holidays. Alternatively, several tour buses include Kinzan
on their itineraries, along with the " Skyline " road, which climbs east
to Kinpoku-san (1173m). From here you get fine views over the whole
island.
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