Sado Island

Our passenger ferry

We began our journey at the small port town of Naoetsu on the Sea of Japan in Niigata Prefecture.  Apart from ferries to Sado, Naoetsu is famous for a wonderfully cheap but pretty interesting aquarium, a MacDonalds and some rather dirty beaches. 

Ferry travel J-style - no seats!  2nd Class passengers sit in carpeted rooms.

Most people just go to sleep or watch TV.

The journey to Sado takes 2 hours 40 minutes by regular ferry, and costs about 4000 yen per person (cars cost a fair bit more).  A hydrofoil goes from Niigata City, further up the coast, and takes just 40 minutes to make the crossing.

The coast of the mainland receding behind us.

We were accompanied on our journey by a large number of hungry sea birds.

There are a lot of things you're not allowed to do on the ferries,

including punching the staff or breaking the furniture.

When we arrived on the island the weather had closed in, so we headed for a nearby tourist attraction to get a bit of shelter.  The place we went to played on Sado's gold mining history, but was unfortunately a shameless tourist trap.  We paid 700 yen for thirty minutes of sifting through sand looking for tiny pieces of gold, which if we found any (I didn't) we had to pay an extra 500 yen to have them mounted in a little credit card sized pouch.

The place must make a fortune.

By the time we'd finished panning for gold we were getting a little hungry.  The only food available at the gold panning place was a little ramen stand outside.  We proceeded to have the worst ramen I've ever had in my life.  Usually you get a piece of pork in there, but as you can see from the picture below they used processed ham instead.  There was some slimy seaweed stuff in there, too, along with the bland tasting noodles.  Apparently it was "Sado-style" ramen.  It's a wonder they don't all starve to death.

So bad it was good.  Actually, it wasn't, it was terrible.

Afterwards we headed back to the port town of Ogi, where we had some proper lunch.  By this time the rain was incessant, so we decided that since we were soaking wet already we might as well go and take a hot spring bath.  Up on the hill behind Ogi was Ogi Onsen, which some nice views of the harbour.

Lunch was pork cutlets back at the port - very delicious

The area of the island we were in.

Ogi back streets.

Ogi is a sleepy little town which is only really famous for the Earth Celebration, an  annual drumming festival performed by the Kodo, a world famous taiko drumming group who live near the village and tour the world for large parts of each year.

A pretty shrine in Ogi.

A view of Ogi port from Ogi Onsen.

A taribune boat (a model, obviously).

The other thing Ogi is famous for is 'taribune', small, round bottom boats that are rowed by women in traditional dress.  You can get rides near the port for 500 yen but since it was pouring with rain we didn't bother.  I'm not quite sure why the town is famous for them - they seem to be utterly impractical in every way.

So we headed back.  On the return journey we had first class reclining seats, which made things much more pleasant, even if the sea was a bit choppy and the boat was making some horrible grinding noises that made me think it was falling apart.  All in all, an interesting day out!

CW

Mount Iizuna, Nagano

The jingle of little bear bells and the hiss of cheap transistor radios fills the air ... that's right, its the start of the Japanese hiking season.

My traditional season opener is the 1917m Mount Iizuna, the nearest significant mountain to my house and Nagano City.  Here are a number of photos of my hike on Saturday May 19th.

A little shrine gate and a couple of fearsome dragon statues guard the hike entrance, which starts at 1205m.

This sign, a little up from the entrance proper, reads "to-zan-do", which translates as "climb-mountain-road".

The path pretty much looks like this for the next hour of walking.

Every so often you come across one of these little statutes, where people leave offerings of coins or sometimes sake (Japanese rice wine). I can only imagine what would happen to these in England - there'd be no statutes left, let alone the cash or booze.

About 45min into the hike the views start to appear.

Here, about halfway up, you can see Nagano City in the distance, beyond which are the mountains of Ueda Sugadaira.

Near the top now, you can see the mountains of the Northern Japanese Alps in the distance.  The best time for views is spring or autumn, as the air is a lot clearer.  In summer, by mid-morning its often too hazy to see anything clearly.

Near the top the trees start to open out.  The bamboo here is all flattened down because the snow has only recently melted.  Most of it anyway...

Another shot from the near the top.  Another hiker can be seen just lower down, gazing out at the view of the Japanese Alps.  A few of those mountains top 3000m and are great hikes.  I usually do a couple each year, although most of the tallest require two days. Luckily most Japanese mountains have hotels on the top...

A little shrine just short of the peak.

Some hikers at the first of two peaks.  Look how kitted out they are - it took me approximately 1.5 hours to get to this point, wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a rucksack containing a bottle of drink and some rice balls.  Some of these people look ready for Everest.

Iizuna has a kind of saddle between two peaks of the same height.  Here is some leftover snow on the path between the two.  I saw several muddy backsides on the way up as I passed people on the way down - this was why.

The peak marker.  The first three kanji are "Ii-zuna-san", the mountain's name. After that it says "San cho", or "mountain peak".  Following that is the height written in Japanese numbers - 1917m.  The altimeter I downloaded halfway up (gotta love iPhones) claimed it was 1922m, so unless I'm three metres tall one of them is a little off.

A hiking group heading back towards the first of the two peaks.  Again, note how well-equipped they are.

A marker at the top indicating which mountains can be seen in which directions.  Most mountains have these, and as always this one claims you can see Fuji on a clear day, some 300km to the south.

Takazuma, 2300-odd metres, still with snow on the top, seen from the top of Iizuna.  It is part of the Togakushi range, a small range of mountains between Iizuna and the Alps.  While not so high, Mount Togakushi, just out of shot to the right, is arguably the hardest day hike in all Japan.  Very dangerous, it has claimed many lives, particularly due to the section known as the "ant-walk" (the middle picture at the bottom).  Having done it twice, trust me when I say its scary.

A nice view from the top across towards Shiga Kogen, one of Japan's premier skiing areas.  Even now, in May, some of the resorts there are still partially open.

The lake in the middle is Iizuna lake.  My house is just over the hill a little past it.

Back at the start, with my car seen through the shrine gate at the entrance, like some kind of metallic god of junk.  It took me roughly an hour to get back down.  All completed within three hours, my legs still felt pretty sore the following day.  While an elevation change of 712m is not much compared to some mountains (The shortest way up Fuji, for example, requires an elevation change of 1350m), it was still a decent morning out.

Here's a view of the Iizuna taken from Nagano City the day after my hike.  The two peaks I climbed are the two separated by the saddle to the left.

Hanami in Nagano

Well, it's that time of year in my part of Japan where the cherry blossoms are out and everyone is all excited about "hana-mi", literally "flower-viewing".  While the only Sunday I had free for a hanami party was pouring with rain, I still took lots of nice pictures of the area around where I live of the trees in "manten" (full bloom).

The most popular type of tree is the "sakura", or "cherry" tree, which is a light pink colour.  You can't actually eat the cherries that grow on the trees after the flowers have gone, although they are used as ingredients in lots of stuff, such as Japanese sweets.

These sakura trees are near my house (although that's my neighbour's house in the picture).  The area is moderately well known, and has lanterns hung from the trees during April so there is a pretty light-up effect during the evenings.

"Sakura" is actually a popular girl's name in Japan.  I have a goddaughter called Sakura, and come across the name fairly often when I'm teaching at high school.

This is a river near my house with a line of sakura trees in bloom alongside my high school's baseball field, with a road bridge in the background.

More trees near my house.

There are two other types of tree that look awesome when they flower at this time of year, "ume" (plum) and "anzu" (apricot).  This is my ume tree (the string is to straighten it as it was growing a little wonky), and it flowers a deep purple.  It's only about four years old and this was the first year that it looked really full of flower.  Unfortunately there is no angle from which to take a picture without there being something unsightly in the background.  Like the sakura cherries, you can't eat the plums that form directly, although they're used for a variety of different foods, as well as being pickled to make the wonderfully sour "umeboshi", which I love, and which are apparently very good after exercise.  Ume can also be used to make "ume-shu" (plum liquor).  It takes about a year for the plum taste to fully infuse into the liquor - last year's 8 litre batch should be ready by July ...

Nagano Marathon 2012

Nagano Olympic Commemorative Marathon has been held every year since 1999, to remember the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998.  This year was the fourteenth and rather a special one because the event was cancelled last year in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake.

Nagano Olympic Stadium

Two years ago I dragged myself around the very flat and pleasant course in a backbreaking 4 hours and 57 minutes, but this year was I doing a volunteer activity organized by the Japan branch of the Junior Chamber International, an organisation which promotes humanitarian activities.  My wife’s brother is the chairman.

The JCI assembled a group of foreigners, made up of teachers like myself and university students, to help little children make cheering implements (tambourines, maracas, etc) out of recycled items such as plastic bottles and old milk cartons.

In total 23 foreigners participated, and a good day was had by all.  Here are some photos of the event.

Our volunteer area.

The eventual men's winner, Francis Kibiwott, with Mt Iizuna (1917m)

in the background.

The crowds lining the final approach to the Olympic Stadium.

Me with "Nano-chan", the Marathon's mascot.  Japan loves "cutesy" things.

Must have been really hot in that suit.

The men's race was won by Kenyan Francis Kibiwott in a new course record of 2:09:05, while another Kenyan, Pauline Wangui won the women's race in 2:34:22.  The Wheelchair Marathon (21km) was won by Masayuki Higuchi in 44:37.

Feeling inspired, I might enter again next year ...

A Gallery of Tokyo Street Signs

Here are some pictures I took while taking a walk through downtown Ueno a couple of months back.

This one is advertising "Pachinko", an extremely boring form of pinball where you feed the money in then sit back and wait.  Gambling is officially illegal in Japan, so if you win you'll be given something random (like cigarettes, or even plastic combs) as a prize, which you can exchange for money in a booth next door.  Needless to say, few foreigners are interested in it.

This is a advert for a Korean-style cook-it-yourself restaurant, specialising, not surprisingly, in pork.

This is a dentist.  I'm not quite sure what that is hanging off the side ...

This is a restaurant specialising in "fugu", or pufferfish.  While these restaurants are known for being expensive, this is perhaps the specials board because these dishes are reasonably priced, with dishes from 780 to 1200yen, which is pretty cheap.

This is a regular massage palour (the normal kind!).

This is an letting agency's offers board.  Around 62,000 for a single room apartment is considered normal for Tokyo, but very expensive everywhere else.

The sign says "major curry".  You get a chicken cutlet, egg, fried shrimps, and something I can't identify dumped on top of a bowl of Japanese curry and rice.  Looks delicious, and is pretty cheap too!

This is an advert for a capsule hotel.  While they look like coffins they're actually pretty comfortable.  However, often they cost very nearly the same as a cheap hotel, so are only really useful if you miss the last train and can't find anywhere to stay.  I've stayed in a few (not this one) and they vary in quality from very nice to very bad.  The big city ones are usually pretty good.

A "rest" (or "love") hotel.  That lower sign is for a two-hour "rest".  In the big cities they are everywhere, and despite the seedy connotations, the largest percentage of clientele is actually married couples who need some privacy away from their families.  In Japan you tend to get the grandparents and the grown up kids all under the same roof, and the houses are not exactly soundproof!

This is a Chinese meat-on-sticks restaurant.  Chinese food in Japan is often very different to what you see overseas (in the UK, for example).  In general, I've found these kind of restaurants to be a good deal, cheap and with large portions, if a little oily.

I hope you have enjoyed my gallery.  I will add more pictures as I collect them!

CW 

April 14th 2012