Gold may be heavier than water, but all that's rattling around the bottom of my panning bowl are lots of multicolored pebbles.
"Slowly, very slowly, or you'll shake the gold out," says my instructor Noriko Yamamoto, a seven-year employee of Toi Kinzan, a restored gold mine outside Toi on the west coast of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture.
With her own bowl in hand, Yamamoto scoops up a helping of silt from the bottom of the museum's gold-panning trough and demonstrates the correct sifting technique. I gawp enviously as a series of twists and spins reveals a cache of sparkling flecks amid the gritty residue. Like any advocate for a get-rich-quick scheme, she has made striking gold look effortless.