佐渡島 (Sado Island) - round 2 (mostly photos)

I went to Sado Island again, this time for a performance of the ALT charity musical. However, due to a general shortage of time and a lack of pictures, I'll just mostly be posting pics of Sado in a general kind of way. I might do a bit on the musical when I'm able to steal some relevant photos from other cast/crew who have actually been taking them at the performances. Until that time, here's some Sado:

First off, Sado is a comparatively remote location. Back in the good old days, it was where political dissidents were sent in hopes that they would either die of the harsh winters, or generally just calm down and leave the Imperial establishment alone. Modernization has changed things a bit, but it's still a bit of a hoof-



The train to Niigata takes something like an 1.25 hours, and then the ferry ride to the island is somewhere around 3 hours.

I've mentioned this once before, but the inside of the ferry is basically a big party. You have a wide, carpeted space on which to spread yourself out. Chatting and card games consume most of the time:



There were strong winds as the ferry set out, causing it to pitch and roll quite a bit. Before almost everyone succumbed to mild seasickness, we were running along the top deck and jumping as the ship pitched down, affording a good extra foot or two of airspace.



Here are a couple shots of the land along the mouth of the Shinano River as it empties its contents (ourselves included) into the Sea of Japan. The Shinano is the longest river in Japan (for what that's worth), and flows directly through Niigata City.





Here are some images to give the general effect of Sado. It is a very remote place, with more traditional wood houses with ceramic tiles still dominating the landscape. There are two mountainous lumps that make up the island's two halves (see the map above), so that during a visit one is more or less always in an expansive valley. Rice fields abound, as does bamboo.





When we went on a walk to the beach, I saw this unusual concrete structure, higher up and farther inland than the ubiquitous tetrapods. A Japanese friend confirmed for me that it was probably built to protect against tsunami.



Finally, just for fun, here's a pic of some of the ALTs kicking a soccer ball around on the morning after the performance.



That's it for Sado! I'm going to be preparing for my upcoming trip to New Guinea for most of the rest of the week, so this may or may not be the last post for about 2 weeks. Everyone can expect a beast of a post when I get back, however. Until then...