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The Island of Sadogashima by Andre Costantini During a recent trip to Japan, Tamron Photographer Andre Costantini took a step off the beaten path and discovered a Japan that you won't find in any guidebooks. Article rating: 7.48

Before I left for Japan if you asked me to name all the places I had planned to visit you would have heard Tokyo and you would have heard Kyoto.   You likely would have also heard somewhere in the countryside.  I never would have guessed Sadogashima.  Actually, I never heard of it before I was in Japan.  Though it is mentioned briefly in some guidebooks (and not really in others), it is so unpopular that none of my Japanese friends have ever been there.  When I mentioned that this was a consideration, I believe one remarked, “Why would you go there?  There is nothing to do.”  It seemed to have everything that I was seeking for a countryside trip, remote and beautiful.  I think it was a poster in one of the train stations, which did the convincing: cliffs and water.  To secure our hotel reservations, we had the woman who ran the inn we were staying at in Kyoto call make reservations, which helped on account of our lack of Japanese.

The island of Sadogashima is located about 60 miles off the west coast of Japan and is part of the Niigata Prefecture.  Far removed from the hustle of Tokyo and three or four hours away (two by train and one by jetfoil or two by ferry).  It has had a strange and sordid past having over the years been a penal colony of sorts during the Edo era among other things.

As it is an island, the only way to get there is by boat.  We traveled via ferry.  Upon boarding, the first thing that was a strikingly different realization was the lack of seats.  The belly of the boat contained raised carpeted floors, on which the passengers would sit or lay down to pass the time during the journey.  A tour group of elderly Japanese tourists sat across from us enjoying a picnic dinner.  Upon landing, we were met by a gentleman who drove us the 5 minutes to our hotel. 

Our accommodations would have likely been nice 20 years ago.  However, it seemed obvious that there had been little done since.  Out of our window, we could hear a symphony of frogs from a neighboring rice field.

The town consists of three or four restaurants and several shops.  From what I could tell, the island is made up mostly of fishermen and farmers, with some people serving the tourist industry during the summer months.  There are no bullet trains -- there are no trains at all.  Cabs have numbers like 1 and 2, with the highest number I saw as 14.

The island is 32 miles long.  The best way to get around on the island is to rent a car, but devoid of an international driver’s license, the bus system did just fine.  There are several bus lines and you transfer from one to the next to make your way around the island.  They run every hour (or two, or three).  The system of payment is based on distance.  You get a ticket when you enter and watch the BINGO board on the front of the bus light up as the trip progresses.

On the first day we took the bus across the island and then to the south.  We then rented some bikes and biked out to a lighthouse, enjoying the perfect weather and dramatic seascapes surrounded by rice fields.

Sado is known for its tradition of Taiko drumming.  It is no surprise that the world famous Kodo drummers call Sado their home.  As luck would have it our second day there was one of their festival days where amateur groups from all over the island come into town to drum, dance and drink.  There are masks, dragons and costumes, which, it seems, are designed to scare young children.  The older kids, however, participate on the outskirts of the festival learning from the adults of rituals passed down through the generations. The festival is mostly for the people of the island by the people of the island.  We saw two other westerners that day. 

Part of the fun in traveling is discovery.   After the festival, we took a bus to the Northern tip of the island.  It was our plan to stay there for the sunset, but the last bus left the north for our town (located on the east) 10 minutes after we arrived.  So we made an arrangement through a series of charades and drawings with one of the cabs to pick us up that evening at a meeting point.

When we arrived, however, we noticed that there was sign for Lodging attached to a Restaurant at our destination.  We enquired about staying, and though we would pay for two rooms, it would be the same price as paying for the cab.  We were informed that the Lodge had closed 15 years ago, but they knew someone that we could stay with the next town over.

After managing to cancel the cab and agreeing on the price of accommodations, which included dinner and breakfast (two of the best meals on the trip) we got dropped off at the house, which was a guesthouse (ironically enough didn’t appear in our guidebooks).   Like our hotel, it was a time capsule; the timeless tatami rooms juxtaposed the dining room with its loud black and white wallpaper, purple ceiling, and red carpet floor.  Only its lack of use had kept it almost new.  Though they spoke virtually no English and we did not speak any Japanese, we managed to be able to communicate fine.  After dinner we looked out our window to the sea and saw the horizon illuminated by what turned out to be fishing boats with the brightest lights I have ever seen, designed to attract fish (and apparently photographers).  At 4am I was awoken by light from the window, which must have been some aurora thing as it was neither sunrise nor fishing boats.  I walked the trail that hugged the shoreline for several hours before returning for a few final hours rest.

The rest of the day was spent hiking along the shoreline where we came across shrines built into natural caves in the landscape, some lined with thousands of little Buddha epoxied to the rocks.  Our final hike of the day brought us up the tallest peak to a small shine with a killer view of the town we spend the night in and the surrounding area.  When we returned to our original hotel, despite the fact that our luggage had spent the night, we were not charged for the room as we didn’t actually stay there.

That left us just enough time to head back to the Hydrofoil and join the rest of the world on the main island to the hustle and excitement of Tokyo.

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amator photographer Posted by: farrokhi Oct 28, 2007 @ 12:46 PM EST

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