There may be many perfectly good reasons to spend a weekend sloshing around in water panning for gold. Trying to get rich isn't one of them.
Such was the prime nugget of wisdom I came away with after spending one recent sunny morning in Minobu Village, Yamanashi Prefecture, where I became one of about 100 contestants in the Yunooku Gold Mining History Museum's "6th Annual Goldpanning Competition."
I'll admit it: Aware that I would be allowed to take home the gold I found, I had checked its price on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange. At 2,384 yen a gram, it was up 2.1 percent from a week earlier -- enough for some serious pocket money should I score, say, a conquistador-worthy 10 grams.