One Day in Sado Island in Niigata

 [Lake Kamo]

I went on a one-day trip to Sadogashima, an island of Niigata, well actually it was a 32-hour-day trip, not including the hour’s journey each way to and from home.

Using the Seishun 18 Ticket, my companion and I caught the Moonlight Echigo (night train) from Shinjuku to Niigata, leaving at 23:10 and arriving at 04:51. After getting ourselves freshened up and stocking up on snacks at the convenience store, we walked to the port to get a 06:30 jet ferry to arrive at Sadogashima at 08:00. Breakfast was the pizza bread and tiramisu buns that I had made the previous night ;) and if I do say so myself, they were YUMMY!

We rented electric-assisted bikes and spent the day leisurely cycling between Ryotsu and Sawata (east to west coast). We didn’t see any of the main sights due to lack of time and because of the fact that we only had two wheels. But it was a nice day of bicycling around, and enjoying the scenery of rice fields. I love the old wooden buildings. Pace of life is slow, people are very friendly, and even though it was a weekend, there weren’t many people around.

We checked out a temple, sampled the reknowned walnut rice cakes of the island, had sushi at Benkei (it was very busy here), and finished off the day with a trip to Kiraku onsen.

Feeling all relaxed, we bought souvenirs and caught the ferry back to the mainland to board the night train back to Shinjuku. We arrived back at 05:10.

 [Snail on one of the old trees at Haguro Shrine.]