Niihama

The Besshi copper mine opened in 1691 and grew into one of the richest in the world, with whole towns of miners living on the mountainside. At Tonaru, 750 metres up, some five thousand people once had a school, a theatre and a hospital. Today stone-and-brick ore bins and the foundations of a cableway station stand among the trees, often half-wrapped in cloud — the view that earned the nickname “Machu Picchu of the East”.

Down in the valley, the old pithead has been turned into Minetopia Besshi, a family-friendly heritage park with a mine train and hot spring, and the city has good museums on the mine and the men who ran it. Niihama is still a factory town and makes no pretence of being pretty, but in mid-October it stages the thunderous Taiko Festival, when gilded three-tonne drum floats are hoisted overhead by a hundred and fifty men at a time.

Niihama highlights

• Look down on the ruined ore bins of Tonaru from the viewing terrace.
• Ride the little mine train into the sightseeing tunnel at Minetopia Besshi.
• Trace three centuries of mining at the free Besshi Copper Mine Memorial Museum.
• Feel the ground shake at the Niihama Taiko Festival.
• Combine with Saijo and Mount Ishizuchi, fifteen minutes away by train.