Japan 2015 - Day 4 - Sado Island

April 10, 2015: Sado Kinzan Gold Mine, Sado Historical Folklore Museum, Meoto-Iwa Rocks, Toki Forest Park

On to Sado Island today!  

Here's Sweetie's breakfast.  I guess I never took a photo of mine.


Team Natto:  Sweetie and Alvin


Girls just wanna have fun . . . 


After breakfast we met at 7 a.m. and rode our bus to Naoetsu Port. We each brought an overnight bag with us and caught this hydrofoil to Sado Island. The rest of our luggage went on to Nagano where we caught up with them the next day.








We landed at Ryotsu Port.  I could only look longingly at this place.  We didn't have time to stop/shop.


Our first stop after disembarking was the Sado Kinzan Gold Mine in the town of Aikawa. The Sado Gold Mine has a 400-year history.


We took a tour of the mine site where automated robot displays showed us what life was like for the miners.












The Exhibition Room further explained the process.










The highlight of this tour was when group members tried to remove a gold bar from a showcase.














We stopped for lunch and some souvenir shopping at the Meoto-Iwa Drive-in.  


It is located adjacent to the Meoto-Iwa (husband and wife) Rocks.  


There were some seaweed drying outside.


Wave bye-bye!!


Next stop was the Sado Historical Folklore Museum.


More robotics were on display for us to view there.










Our final stop was the Toki Forest Park.


It's a good thing that they had this stuffed toki.  It's the only photo that I have of the bird. It was hard to photograph them when the rules say to "Please watch toki lovingly and quietly so as not to frighten them. Please watch toki quietly from a distance through a binocular or something. When observing toki, please try not to be a nuisance to the locality."  Is it no wonder that I didn't take any photos?  I did get to buy some cute, little toki charms with bells, though. 


Anyway, I know that you thoroughly enjoyed my highly informative and very educational in-depth explanations of the Gold Mine, Meoto-Iwa Rocks, the Historical Folklore Museum and the Toki Forest Park, but if you are in need of more information about them, please check out: Trip to Sado Island - Part 1 and Trip to Sado Island - Part 2.  They are blog posts written by Manisha Kundu-Nagata, an Indian woman who is married to a Japanese man and lives in Akita, Japan.  She has a PhD in Physics and therefore, unlike me, is very, very smart. 

At the end of this very busy day, we checked into the Ryotsu Yamaki Hotel.  This is the view from our room.  Seems so peaceful, yah? Well, it woulda been had it not been for some campaigner shouting speeches forever and ever and ever and ever via a loudspeaker.  Whatda?  There should be an ordinance or something . . . especially on this island . . . forbidding such a thing. I swear . . . it went on for daaaaaaaaaaaaaays.


Here are two cute manjus that were waiting for us atop our table in the middle of the room when we arrived. Okay, maybe I should say, here WERE two cute manjus. 


And look at the retro phone!!


We busted out the sasadango that Sweetie bought at Furusato-Mura.


I totally looooooved it.  The mochi was chewy, and I like a chewy mochi.


Dinner was FABULOUS!!!!  In fact, so FABULOUS that I'm giving it it's own special separate blog post. I will share it next.  In the meantime . . . goodnight . . . oyasumi nasaaaai.