Monday, September 28, 2009

Tsugawa to Kanose







From the station we headed out of Tsugawa along Route 459, bound for nearby Kanose. The latter was formerly home to the Showa Chemical Company's Niigata plant, which became notorious in the mid 1960s as the source of Japan's second outbreak of methyl mercury poisoning, known as Minamata disease. Showa has since left the area, and today Kanose is little more than a peaceful village nestled between the Agano River on one side and low mountains on the other. It is also home to the bizarre Kanose Art Museum, closed when we passed through at 8 am.

No comments: