We visited Niigata and Tochigi during 15th to 17th July. It was long weekend. First, we went to Niigata Minamata Disease Museum in Niigata city. Niigata Minamata Disease, is one of four big pollution diseases in Japan. This disease occurred because methyl mercury was released into the Aganogawa river from the Showa Denko in the 1950's. The river water and plankton was polluted by methyl mercury, fish ate the plankton ,and finally people ate the polluted fishes. It was food chain reaction. More than 50 years ago, many people had been poisoned by organic mercury. In addition, some people died because of this disease. The problems of Niigata Minamata Disease are not yet solved, and people are still suffering from this disease.
After Niigata, we stayed at Yujyuku hot springs in Gunma prefecture, for one night. It was really nice. Next our destination was Asio town which is located west of Tochigi. We took the train all the way there. The train ride was about three hours long, so far. But, I think by train was the best way to go to Asio, because it was quiet in the car, no traffic jams and also from the train we could see the beautiful view of the rivers and mountains in Asio.
In Asio town, there was once a Asio Copper Mine and refining plants. At the time, this was the largest copper mine in Japan. In the 1920's, these mines and plants discharged untreated waste water and waste air, and finally the rivers and mountains in Asio was polluted. It was called the Asio copper mine pollution incident, and it was the first pollution problem in Japan. We walked around refining plants, and we could see many mountains without trees. These mountains affected by the air pollution. Now, volunteers and Japanese government personal plant trees for the recovery of the area. These issues are not a thing of the past. We have to learn a lot of lessons from past environmental problems.
