Senkakuwan Bay

Aikawa Gino Densho Tenjikan offers opportunities to learn about traditional art handed down from generation to generation in Aikawa. The museum offers hands-on experiences of Mumyoiyaki, an art which uses potter's clay produced in the gold mine, and rag-weaving on a traditional back-strap loom with careful instruction by staff members. Pottery by artists in Sado, rag-weaving works, and Bunya puppets are on display. The museum sits right in the middle of the tourist area with Kitazawa Flotation Plant and Aikawa Folk Museum.

The Kitazawa area in Aikawa is home to a group of facilities, such as a power plant and a thickener (designated National Historical Site), which contributed to the modernization of mines. The flotation method had originally been used for copper beneficiation, but at Kitazawa Flotation Plant, the technniques were applied to silver and gold extraction, and successfully utilized for the first time in the world. Under a war-time increase in production plan, large-scale investment was made. As a result, the Flotation Plant was able to process over 50,000 tonnes of ore per month, and the plant was declared the greatest one in the East.

Inscribed with birthplace, posthumous Buddhist names, names and ages of twenty-eight mushukuknin, who worked as a drainage labourer and deceased underground in 1853, a gravestone stands in the middle of mountains. In the Edo Period, to secure labour at the gold mine, 1,800-some mushukunin were forced to come and work in a mine from Edo (present-day Tokyo), and Osaka and Nagasaki, both of which were under direct control of the Edo Shogunate. Mushukunin is people who do not have fixed address arrested under the Shogunate's public security measures. Due to the hard labour, mushukunin is said to have lived a short life.

This relaxing, tranquil restaurant was converted from the home of a mine captain on Aikawa's Kyomachi Street. Highlights include hand-kneaded soba noodles made from home-grown-and-ground buckwheat, soba croquettes, and soba shiruko (sweet red bean soup with soba dumplings). This restaurant is open on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays only.

Guesthouse Senkakuwan stands directly next to Senkakuwan Ageshima Yuen. The inn is perfectly located for exploring Aikawa and Sotokaifu in the neighbourhood of Marine Park in Senkakuwan Bay and Tassha Bathing Beach. Guesthouse Senkakuwan treats guests to fresh, locally caught seafood including deluxe sashimi served on a ship-shaped platter for dinner. The guesthouse is a friendly place where tourists and locals can casually pop-in and enjoy menu items such as set meals and donburi (rice with toppings) prepared with special seafood.

Senkakuwan Ageshima Yuen is a tourist attraction of Ageshima Kyowan (narrow bay), the fifth most scenic spot at Senkakuwan Bay. From the observation deck, you can enjoy a dynamic, panoramic view. The surrounding area is a marine park, designated as one of Japan's 100 Scenic Foreshores. You can also enjoy a cruise around the bay, and the underwater world, aboard a glass-bottom boat (for a fee). On site, there are also an aquarium, which is home to fish found in the sea surrounding Sado, and a resource centre, which displays panels about a famous Japanese film, "Kimi no Na Wa" [What is Your Name?

Kinzanjaya is an eatery located in the third car park of the historic site "Sado Gold Mine". You can enjoy lunch made from fresh seafood. Kinzan Soba (buckwheat noodles) topped with chewy mekabu seaweed, shrimp tempura and iwanori seaweed and gold dust is highly recommended. In addition, "Kinzan Curry" served in a shape of Doyu no Wareto (split mountain top of the gold mine), and "Special Kaisendon", are popular menu items among others.