Sailing to Sado

Hello all!

It's been an exciting past few days for me, as I celebrated the end of the university term by going camping on Sado Island, part of Niigata Prefecture and in the Sea of Japan. David had suggested this several weeks ago, as his former roommate, Mo, was coming for a week, and it was an opportunity for some exploring. Sado is regarded as a hidden gem of Japan, not being high on the tourist trail, despite having a beach that is rated as among the top 100 swimming spots in all Japan, and also a site that has two stars in the Michelin Travel Guide. I took one look at the promotional material for our proposed campsite, and was sold:

We took an overnight bus from Tokyo to Niigata, arriving just after 6 in the morning. This followed with a walk through the city to the ferry terminal, for which we had prepurchased first class tickets. What a good idea this was, as it meant we had preallocated seats (meaning we didn't have to rush to queue), and as the second and third class sections had no seats, only tatami mats upon which to lie down. Furthermore, the first class section had no more than 30 seats, meaning we had plenty of quiet for napping during the 2 1/2 hour journey.

Before I inevitably fell asleep however, I made sure to explore around the ship and make the most of any photographic opportunities it presented. Getting up to the top deck, we watched the boat depart and begin powering through the waves.

As you can see in this last photo, we noticed a lot of seagulls flying around part of the ship. It turns out that an encouraged activity (as in it is in the guidebook of Sado activities), is to feed the seagulls, which are so accustomed to it that they will eat chips out of your hand. As I am a fan of bird photography, I went to see what the fuss was about (at this point not knowing about the feeding activity), and it was amazing just how close you could get to the gulls, who were totally chill with people.

Following the birds to the back of the ship

Getting closer, but still several decks above the action

Gulls!

The number of birds who caught chips in midair, only to be harassed by a jealous bird, was significant

A lucky (and less lucky) bird

Excellent beak-eye coordination

Normally I am not really a fan of seagulls, but they were undoubtedly elegant in this setting

As we got further from shore, the number of gulls started to dwindle, and I went back upstairs to top deck to try some panoramic images; the first of many this trip!

Part of the reason I wanted to do this was to be able to do a photo project I had done last January in New Zealand, but for whatever reason had had little occasion to do again - making planets. Seeing the clear skies and unobstructed, consistent horizon, upon my return I turned the above image into this:

Planet Sado Island Ferry!

Photo magic aside, we took a little bit more of a look around the top deck before heading back inside to first class, where we all had some excellent sleep for a couple of hours, being woken by the 15 minutes before arrival message.

We were told when we had called to book the campsite that there were no food stores around there, so we would have to buy food elsewhere and bring it with us. This was fine, as we reasoned we would go to a supermarket or convenience store at the port, then bus to the campsite. In principle this was a good idea, but in practice it was a bit more complex. We arrived and got into the arrival lounge about 10 minutes before a bus departed to our camp, so we decided to miss that one in favour of the next one, which was three hours later (Sunday bus schedule being a bit sparse). We went to the tourist information centre to confirm all this, and the man there was pointing out various bus times (only one line services our campsite), and so we determined that 3.20 was the departure time we would use. The bus ride is 50 minutes and that would give us time to set up camp, and then have a swim and an explore before the sun set at around 7. With this in mind, we put our bags in lockers, and went to explore the surrounding area, visit a convenience store for food, and then come back.

The town at Ryotsu Port is, to put it politely, a friggin' ghost town. Aside from the ferry terminal and freight centre, nothing much seemed to be open, or even habitable. Many buildings were in a state of disrepair, and it honestly felt a bit like a zombie movie set in a summery beach town. We determined there was a single convenience store, a Lawsons, about 20 minutes away, along the shores of Lake Kamo, and so made our way there. The Lake itself is supposedly famous, but honestly it was much like any other body of water, with some scummy algae at the shore and dilapidated boats lying on ancient boat ramps - hardly a picturesque lake view!

These houses were among the most habitable looking, and yet they looked unlived in

Overgrown lots and buildings in various states of disrepair were the norm

Lake Kamo - nice enough, but nothing to write home about (and yet it's in the blog, go figure)

Finally we made it to the Lawsons, which is beside a service station that inexplicably has a Christmas Elf as its mascot - naturally I was quite pleased.

We had a bit of lunch, bought some drinks and icecream, and charged our phones for a bit, but as we still had close to two hours, we thought we'd go another way into the town to see what was what, and what was more, we had found another convenience store, this time a local one, that was well reviewed. The town has some cool public artworks, but again as everything was shut it felt a bit strange, as though an attempt to revitalise the town took place but somewhat crashed and burned...nevertheless, we were happy to interact with it!

Of course there were more dilapidated buildings, as well as some relevant to the ocean sculptures, which were quite pretty.

 It also gave us an opportunity to see the ferry unobstructed by the terminal, before it left on the mainland bound trip.

We were approaching our 3.20 departure, so we found this local convenience store, and what a disappointment it was. Where a Lawson will have a consistent range wherever in Japan you are, this one had either been picked clean earlier, or just had a meagre stock all the time. While I was hoping to get some filled rolls and other bready things that don't require refrigeration, all that I could get was a small pack of doughnuts in the soon-to-be-at-their-useby-date-bin, and some mini salami sticks. The google reviewer who said it had a good selection was clearly blind or really came from the wop wops, because they had no idea what they were talking about. After making a quick review myself to inform future potential visitors, we went to the bus station to get our 3.20 bus, or so we thought. The tourist information guy had spent a whole lot of time talking about this bus, but in fact the bus we wanted was the 3.16 one - 3.20 being the time the incoming bus arrived, but AFTER the outgoing bus had departed. So while we had been at the bus station, we were not at the stop, instead making our way there, thinking we had a few minutes. So we missed the bus we wanted. This would normally be a slight inconvenience, except that, being a Sunday (so fewer buses), and on a line that isn't terribly popular anyway due to a lack of things on the north of the island (meaning fewer departure and arrival times), the next bus we could take was at 6.49 - so we had a three hour, twenty nine minute wait!



After cursing the tourist information man (who became the subject for an injoke for anytime we had some trouble with something), we set up camp at the bus station, with snacks and a portable speaker belting out tunes. We got some odd looks from elderly Japanese, but at this point we weren't terribly concerned with their thoughts, as we had much longer than them to wait - fortunately in the shade, as it was still in the mid thirties.

Eventually our bus did arrive, but with it our plan to arrive during the light hours to set up camp, and then explore the area, was fast becoming unlikely. And so it was that we arrived in the dark just before 8pm, and with the winds from the flanks of a recent typhoon (fortunately not one that hit Niigata, bus further west), we had some very windy conditions to deal with. We went into the lobby to sign in, and after filling out forms, paying the fee, etc., the man at the desk explained we were to turn left from the door, and walk a little bit to the campsite. Being dark, we walked for a little bit with some uncertainty, and found a map of the place which had a cartoony depiction of cars and tents together. Therefore we reasoned, the carpark ended as the campsite started. Finding parked cars we moved to the back of them, underneath some trees, and started to set up the tents. By started though, I mean we tried in vain because the ground was so stony. Soon after a car pulled up, and the guy from the lobby came out, apologising profusely for not having explained well - we had to walk a little bit further, and were currently trying to set up the tents in the carpark! Of course had it been light (due to catching the 3.16 train) we would have seen all this, but that was not to be. So we hastily repacked, and moved another 200 or so metres to the actual campsite. This had a toilet block, a row of outdoor sinks, and some BBQs (though we had not prepared to use these, so they remained unexplored for our time there). Having found the spot, we began to set up in the dark, being buffeted by reasonable winds.

As it was too dark to do very much, we munched on the little food we could buy from that stupid local convenience store, and went to bed. It was warm enough that we didn't have an uncomfortable time of it, however with the wind howling so much we were constantly being bumped by the tent walls, and at times we wondered if it was going to collapse. I had brought with me a roll of twine, which we had used to reinforce one tent against a tree, and the other tent against the first, which held true throughout the night thankfully.

Next thing it was 5.20 and fully light. The wind had stopped, and it was fully clear outside. Groggily emerging from our tents, breakfast of stale doughnuts was had, and then we confirmed our plans for the day. The first bus departed the camp at 6.19, with the next one at nearly 10, so we decided the 6.19 would be the one to go for. This day was allocated for hiking, as one of the mountains closeby is famous for a cedar forest with some interestingly shaped trees. Taking the bus to the stop nearest the start of the track, we got off, and began the walk, all 10km of it. This track took the form of a mix of covered and uncovered, sealed and unsealed, flat and inclined, uphill and downhill, and took us through a range of biomes, from rice paddies to pine nurseries, young cedar forests, and generic Japanese bush. We also found a small spring on the side of the road, which was incredibly refreshing, as we immersed our heads and faces in it, and rinsed our mouths, if only to have a brief bit of cooling - it was heavenly!

This waterfall was to come in handy later

Japan is well known for its bug life (Pokemon was inspired by the creator's love of catching bugs in his childhood), and we were not disappointed! A huge variety of butterflies, caterpillars, cicadas, gnats, wasps, and spiders were seen, and to my surprise (both pleasant and terrified), some snakes! This marked the second time I had seen a snake in the wild, and only the third ever time I'd seen one. It was also the first time I saw a snake's head in the wild, and indeed it's entire body. Approaching it with a degree of caution only someone who comes from a country both devoid of snakes and close to Australia can have, I looked at it with great fascination through my camera lens. Having looked up online at the markings, I think it was a Japanese Rat Snake, rather than the Japanese Pit Viper I first thought it was - apparently young Rat Snakes have similar markings to the vipers as a way of avoiding attention, and these telltale bands were too close together to actually be from the Pit Viper. So while it wasn't the super dangerous (still only kills around a dozen people per year), the excitement of seeing an entire wild snake was very cool.

I have made this picture bigger to make it easier to see the snake

Hard to see here, but this is an unfortunate spider being taken by a wasp, presumably to have parasitic eggs/larvae implanted into it...lovely

We finally made it to the start of the forest, which was a gentle, shaded, soft underfoot, 1600m walk with the fragrance of cedar filling the air. The trees had been described as well worth the trip, and while they were interesting, we were so tired we were beginning to question them somewhat. No doubt they had some history and so on, but by this point we were pretty shot.

What was worth it however, was the view. Towards the end of the track we came across a clearing which had some log seating, and a small platform, from which you could see to the North and East, far over the forest we had walked through, across to the other side of the island, and, far to the horizon, the mountains of the mainland.

Taking time for some well deserved rest, we determined that we would not be able to get back on a bus into town, get to the Lawsons, and then catch another bus back to the campsite, as the last bus would be leaving a few minutes before our bus arrived to drop us off. Realising we had a bit of a conundrum, and running reasonably low on food, we resigned ourselves to a slightly spartan dinner of the remaining bread/doughnuts, as well as some dried squid, and the bottles of wine and sake we had bought in town the day before. With no rush to catch the bus, we made our way back down, which was less hot than going up, but having used most of our water, we were quickly getting pretty hot anyways. We of course visited the spring again, but this relief was fleeting, as we were heating up again within a few minutes under the sun. This is where the waterfall we saw earlier came to mind. Walking past it, we discussed the feasibility of going off track for a bit to see whether there was an opportunity for a swim, or at least to splash some water on our faces. This turned out to be the case, and walking upstream, we climbed over some man-made retaining structures to the base of the waterfall, took off our shirts, emptied our pockets, and stood under the water. That experience was purifying to the max.

In the end I decided to hold my shirt under the water too, to extend the cooling properties of the water, and we continued the descent. By the time we reached the bottom, both my shorts and shirt were almost completely dry, and indicator of how hot it was!

We were early for the bus so we sat on the beach by the bus stop with some drinks we bought from a vending machine (while this end of the island has literally no shops, it does have vending machines - this is Japan after all), and fully dried out.

Interesting flood/storm protection structures

Getting on the bus we made our way to camp, this time before sunset, meaning we had time to take a look at the sights, in particular Futatsugame, or the Two Turtles, a massive pair of rocks that are connected to the island by a sandbar, which also frame the highly rated swim spots. With our remaining food, wine, sake, togs and towels in hand, we set ourselves up for an evening of swimming, sunsets and dinner.

The view from the campsite down to the beach, with the two swimming spots, and the Two Turtles in the background

The water in the left hand water was warmer, but also a bit scungy, and the water in the right hand pool was crystal clear with amazing visibility, and while it felt cool as we waded in, once we were in it was amazing (David required a bit of persuasion but was thankful I took the plunge to encourage him - it was totally worth it). In addition to be super refreshing and clear, it was also populated by a number of tropical-esque fish (probably a bit far north to be truly tropical), who were totally fine with swimming up to us; some were actually nibbling on the hairs on my legs, I could feel the tickle! As the sun started to sink lower and lower, we got out of the water and set up for dinner, on the edge of the left hand water.

While our food wasn't necessarily ideal for dinner (much like most of our dining this trip to be honest), the wine and sake was very nice (and the wine came in an appropriately fish shaped bottle which was cool too). With the sun setting lower and lower, music playing, and my camera and tripod at the ready, I took a number of sunset photos, having not had such a good sunset opportunity since I was in Rarotonga in August last year.

Of course it also meant another planet was made, this time of the beach (featuring my tripod shadow at around 4 o'clock too)

 There was a little bit of astrophotography taking place as well, but because the moon is currently pretty well full, and what looked like the entire Sea of Japan fishing fleet was on the horizon, light pollution was substantial. Instead I determined to have a better go the next day, with some of the gear I had left in the tent. Instead we had a a go at a light painting project, which served as something of a proof of concept for the next night as well.

As I didn't have my remote shutter control, all I could do were 30 second shots meaning two light runners were needed, hence the disconnect of lights up the hill

When we back at camp, I set about trying a shot I'd seen before, but never really had an opportunity to try. While Mo was rummaging around in his bag, and David was showering in the sink behind me, I had set up torches in the tents, facing upwards, and used the illumination through the tent skins to great effect.

I was very happy with this result

Waking early again the next morning (as I responded to Mum saying 'you're up early' when I replied to a message at 5.30, it is hard to stay asleep when the sun rises at 4.30 and you're in a tent), we took the 6.19 bus into the ferry terminal, this time to take another bus to the western side of the island, which apparently is where civilisation is found. We had a sake brewery tour on the list, as well as a bird sanctuary, meaning we were far more touristy this time, and more importantly, would be able to replenish our supplies.

Before we did this though, I went via a post office to send Claire a postcard - which amazingly arrived before I did - and then to a shopping mall to get some bits and pieces. While we were eating and drinking something other than stale doughnuts, we noticed a staff member pushing a trolled filled with boxes towards us, and a group of old people waiting around. The guy unloaded these boxes, which were full of fish products, and the elderly horde descended upon it, snaffling up the best bits. It was quite comical to watch really.

You could almost simulate zombie horde movements by modelling these people

Having eaten some, we headed to a nearby beach for a quick look around, and then took a bus to the brewery.

Sado Island is famous for one brewery in particular, which Robert De Niro is very fond of,  so much so that he has collaborated with them, with their sake in some restaurants he co-owns. This brewery however is at the bottom of the island, and as we were at the mercy of our still infrequent on weekdays bus line, we had to go elsewhere. This was not a problem though, as Sado has several very good breweries, and it meant we were able to go to one that does not get many foreign tourists, enabling us to get a slightly novel experience.

Called Obata Shuzo Brewery, the first part of the tour was to watch a DVD discussing how sake is made. We were then guided into a long tasting room which had all sorts of displays on either side, to look like a traditional sake distillery. They make all sorts of drinks, ranging from plum and kiwifruit wines to the more conventional sakes. One of these was presented to Pope John Paul II in the 1980s, and so I decided to buy a bottle of that. I'm not really a huge fan of sake - there are some that are reasonably drinkable and some that are awful, but I liked the story of this sake being fit for a Pontiff. We had one of the staff, Yuko, explaining to us about the various different sakes and things they do there - with me understanding between half and two thirds, and David understanding between a quarter and third we got a pretty good idea of what was going on by filling in the gaps with context. There is a bird that is famous in Sado, called the Toki (a type of Ibis), and it is in a reasonably endangered state. Rice farmers who make steps to accommodate Toki in their paddies can get Toki certification, which means they can have Toki signage on their farms, and rice they sell can bare the Toki symbol, much like we show off fair trade or organic. One of the sakes made by Obata uses only Toki certified rice, and so also has the logo on it.

Once we'd had some tastings and bought some things, we had the rest of the "tour". I say "tour", because it was basically us having free reign to walk wherever we liked in the premises. What was funny was whenever we passed someone working, they would stop, bow, and thank us - really all we were doing was getting in the way!

Huge vats of sake

Bottles ready for distribution

A mock up of an old cooking pit for heating rice and water into sake

Yuko was an absolute hoot, and took several photos of us with their various displays, and even had one with us. She also recommended us a restaurant, which was good as it gave us a chance to eat something not from a convenience store.

As we made to leave, we noticed some chirruping above us, and looked up in the lobby. Attached to the wall was a nest made of mud, and several baby birds were peering down at us. Apparently a pair of birds had set up shop in there, and had their little family going quite nicely - possibly as a way of escaping the heat (fair enough too!). The brewery had taken to leaving one window open, despite having the aircon on, and both parent birds knew where it was, and so could come and go at leisure.

After lunch, we took another bus to the Toki Breeding Sanctuary. For context, the Toki is the red faced Ibis, which once inhabited Sado island and a lot of the Japanese mainland, in wetlands. In the late Edo period into the Meiji era, it was hunted for food, and due to overhunting, the Japanese Toki became extinct. A similar situation happened in China, where a local variant lives, but with a small population remaining. Some of these birds were brought to Sado in the hopes of restarting a population, and while they are still endangered, they are making something of a comeback.


There was a museum which explained the physiology of the Toki, its predators and so on, as well as describing other species of birds (including the kiwi!). And of course there was a mascot.

Once we finished with the museum, we got to see some of the breeding enclosures, as well as the hilariously named "Toki Rapport Plaza", which was basically a building adjacent to one of the enclosures that allowed you to get up right close to some of them, albeit behind glass.

They were fairly uninterested in us, though we got there at just the right time for one to be in the pond next to the window, hunting fish. A few minutes later when a group of businessmen turned up, the Toki had left and was over the other side far from any windows - lucky us!

The post box at the sanctuary was quite cute too

After we left the sanctuary, it was back to the port to catch our bus back to camp, but naturally the last bus we could take to the port had us arriving a good two hours before our camp-bound bus. So off we went to Lawsons, where we charged phones, got some snacks and a couple beers, and took them to the waterfront as we whiled away the time.

A very cute craft beer for me!

We almost became fixtures in the mornings and evenings at this Lawsons

Having restocked at Lawsons for our last night, we finally got on the bus and made our way back to camp. It seemed that this line served the few old people that lived up that way, and more often than not the three of us represented more than half the occupants of the bus, including the driver. Our last bus ride to camp was the last of the day, and apparently the normal clientele had gone to bed, so it was essentially a 50 minute taxi ride (though covered by our bus pass)

Demonstrative of our bus experiences half the time

As with the previous evening we sat down across from Futatsugame, with music, drinks and food (not stale this time). I'd also had some time to think about the lighting conditions and brought down the gear I had not had on me last time, so we spent a solid amount of time after dinner playing with light, illumination, ghosting, and astrophotography. Most times I've done this it has been just me (or with someone else who also has a camera; essentially two people working solo), so here was a good opportunity for me to have two assistants/models, leaving me to be in full control of the camera without having to balance other things - I felt like a movie director! David also had some ideas, so for those he was creative director, with me as a technical director role, but we managed to mix it up, and I got to be a model at times too, all the while shouting out instructions for whoever was manning the camera.

The lights from the port in the middle of the island

What spinning a headlamp looks like

Mo grew wings!

David vs Goliath Mo

David vs Troy, a clash of Titans

The Big Dipper above the Two Turtles

Inspired by our previous attempt the night before, we had a several minute long exposure, with the three of us walking the track, and featuring the full moon above us

Our last morning we allowed ourselves to take the 9.40 bus, meaning we could "sleep in", decamp, and take a little look around. Mo and I got up earlier than usual (5am), had breakfast, and then took a look at the Turtles up close - the sandbar having been submerged other times we were there. I also took the opportunity to photograph some of the critters that were around the camp, including a cicada emerging from its shell, and a recently emerged from underground cicada nymph; both things I had never seen before. Also I had to see about making another panoramic planet of the campsite, which turned out ok I think!

You cannot walk up the Turtles beyond getting right up to them on the sand bar, but standing right next to them really emphasized the sense of scale they have - they are enormous! On the walk back along the sand bar I kept checking them through my lens to see whether they would fill the frame without exceeding it, and I kept having to go further back, even on my widest 24mm lens! Returning back, Mo and I decamped with David, who had been sleeping in, and finding ourselves with almost an hour left, went on a little tiki tour while David took a shower.

Along the coast a bit from Futatsugame is a place called Sai no Kawara, which is known as the "Limbo of Infants". It is essentially a scared Buddhist site where the spirits of dead children remain in purgatory - what children need to be in purgatory for I do not know (does Buddhism have original sin as Catholics do?)

We wandered across a path made with rocks that had seemingly been placed by hand, which also gave us some new and interesting views of Futatsugame.

About a kilometre along we climbed a small rise, and then we saw the mouth of a sea cave, which was filled with statues. These Buddhist statues, called Jizo, are all over the place in Japan (I saw plenty in Nikko when I went there weeks ago), but these ones were different in that they had faces of children on.

There was also a big standing statue of Buddha, who unusually was holding a child, much like the Virgin Mary with Christ, and had two children at his side, perhaps acting as a protector for them.

In addition to the statues, people had left bottles of tea and packs of sweets (which is quite common in temples and cemeteries here), but also there were a large number of toys, origami cranes, and flower windspinners; as though people were providing entertainment for the spirits of the children.

To say there wasn't a creepy vibe would be lying somewhat, and so I put some coins in the donation box to escape any wrathful child spirits - which Japan certainly has (all you need to do is check out the Ring or the Grudge movies to see a particularly vengeful pair of ghosts, one of whom is a child). As of writing I am not noticing any strange goings on, so hopefully my precautions worked.

Speaking of creepy moments in cinema, this rock which was covered in tiny statues had a very Planet of the Apes feeling going for it too

As it came time to leave, Mo and I wandered back to the camp, rendezvoused with David, and went to the bus stop to begin the journey back to civilisation. This included a similarly unpopulated bus ride, and then we were back on a ferry with first class tickets; a stark contrast from our roughing it on the island.

View from the bus

Our ticket out of here

As with the ferry to Sado, there were plenty of seagulls, but also this time a hawk, which was making similar dives, presumably for chips as well (sigh). Nevertheless, it made for some good photography.

Before long, the ferry engine kicked into gear, and we started our journey back across the 50 or so kilometres of the Sea of Japan, where a bus ride back to Tokyo awaited us.

The last planet of the trip

Everything the light touches is our kingdom

The safety instructional video was less video, more slightly creepy mannequin

Farewell Sado!

And so we traveled back from Niigata, through Gunma and Saitama Prefectures, arriving in Shinjuku just before midnight. Sado is definitely something I would recommend, and deserves its title of being the untouched gem of Japan; it seems reasonably undeveloped and we spent a lot of time without any other tourists nearby - and certainly very few foreigners. My tan has improved somewhat, and I can cross Niigata off as a prefecture that I have visited, which is always nice!


If you've carried on reading up to this point, good job - this must surely be the longest of the blog posts I've yet written, mostly because I didn't want to serialise it; instead having it as one piece. I haven't got any major plans as yet for the rest of my summer holiday, except for the logistical exercise of moving dorms - still something I haven't heard back about yet, but I'm thinking any day now....

So, until next time, sayonara!

Troy :)