My firm sponsored a trip to Sado Island a few weeks ago, and Michael and I joined the trip. Sado Island is about 60km off the west coast of Japan off of Niigata. Sado Island is made up of two parallel mountain ranges connected by a fertile valley.
It is the only place left in Japan where the Toki, or Japanese Crested Ibis, lives. All the Toki in Japan now live in captivity on Sado Island, and are part of a breading program. They are known for the beautiful salmon color that you can see when they spread their wings.
Sado Island is also known for Noh, a form of classical Japanese musical drama. We saw a performance of Hagoromo, a story about a fisherman who encounters an angel and she performs a dance for him.
Sado Island has historically played an important role in Japan, most importantly because it had large deposits of gold. The gold mines are no longer active, but they are open for tours.
Although the mines are no longer staffed by humans, they are populated with robots that depict what mining would have been like. (Someone's brother-in-law made a lot of money selling robots to Sado Island!)
Here you can see where a mountain was split in half mining for gold.
You can even give it a try yourself!
We even saw a replica boat that would have been used to shuttle gold back to the mainland.
It was a jam-packed weekend, full of sight-seeing, excellent food and great company.
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