Aug. 6-11, 2023
Sado Island, belongs to Niigata Prefecture of Japan. Although it is the sixth largest island in Japan, it is not so well known to foreigners. As far as we cycled around the whole island (roughly 211km), we met only a handful of westerners.
It is most well-known for having a gold mine, and exile of a former emperor there some hundred years ago. Therefore, it does have a long history and historical buildings.
Also, a wild bird called “Toki” is their feature character, so you can find it everywhere, like their road signs and marks, local products such as milk and foods…
[DAY #1]
Early morning, we took shinkansen (bullet train) to Niigata. Then, we rebuilt our bikes in front from the train station and rode it to the ferry port roughly 2.5km away. Niigata is very flat and easy to ride. However, there is only 5 ferries per day between Niigata and Ryotsu port of Sado Island. It is managed by Sado Kisen. It is better to check the time table and service status beforehand. Normally, a reservation is not necessary, unless peak season or holidays.
It takes about 2.5 hours by ferry to Sado Island. However, the ferry has A/C and resting area where you could ly down, canteen, WIFI, water drinking machine, so it was quite comfy. We parked our bikes at the ground floor with the cars, then we could go upstairs to the passenger floors to relax. I even managed to get the ferry stamp and card as free souvenirs.
When we arrived, it was already mid afternoon, very hot. there were only few shops around port Ryotsu. We took a quick look at the Lake Kamo, supermarket, bought a small bucket for laundry/shower, ate really nice sushi as early dinner, then rode to the closest campsite for the night.
We passed by Akagame Kazashima Nagisa Park, which is a free campsite with cooking space, open cold water shower and nice sea view. However, there were already quite some people camping there, seems noisy, and there was still time till dark, so we rode further to the next free campsite, kept riding during sunset.
We arrived Matsugasaki History Park after dark, but it was a very nice quite campsite at seaside, with well-equipped toilet and indoor cold water shower and cooking space. There was only one other group camping quite far away. They were quiet, and even gave us their leftover foods. We were already all sweaty, so very happy to get the comfortable cold water shower and washed our clothes.
Next morning, we noticed this park actually has an abandoned boat at the center and a lighthouse nearby. It was a really nice campsite.
[Day #2]
Next day, we really want to find a beach to enjoy the sea. We left in early morning without breakfast. We passed by Sado Deep Sea Water facility, so we bought a bottle of water to try. We passed by some beaches, but we wanted to look for a beach with free shower, so we kept riding.
We tried traditional “tub boat” at Yajima kyōjima. It is a boat that looks like a bucket, made of sugi wood and bamboo surface, but it can last like 20-40 years. There is a window built at the middle, so we can see the fishes and sea urchins under water.
We also went sightseeing at Shukunegi. Some junior high kids gave us free tours. It was a really beautiful old town that looks like pictures. They put stones on their wooden roof to avoid them being blown off by wind. There was a famous person from this town, who drew the world map.
Eventually, we enjoyed the beach of Sobama Campground. The Campground is quite expensive, so we did not stay there, but the beach was very clean, nice waves, and most of all, free indoor shower. We had a beer and some chips, a relaxing afternoon.
When we tried to leave, then my hubby had a flat tire. We had to sweat under the sun to fix the hole, but luckily it was only a few km to our free campsite, Hamoshi Sobama Coast. It supposed to have a free shower, but it has been closed for years, due to lack of management. Now, there is only toilet, managed by local neighborhood. However, it was very quiet and nice grassland. We slept well there. We even received mini tomatoes and sashimi from locals. There was only an elder couple camping nearby us. We hanged a rope, washed and hanged all our clothes during sunset. It was my most favorite camp night.
We are so glad that our camp is meshy. We only put sheet on top of our sleeping mat to sleep. We did not need sleeping bag. We only need a lot of water and cold water shower everyday.
[Day #3]
This is our main feature day. We went to visit the famous gold mine.
On the way, we visit Sado History Museum. It was really interesting and exceeded our expectation. Although the entrance fee was 900yen per person. In the museum, there were many moving scenes and shows by robots. The decoration and settings were as good as visiting Disneyland etc. theme parks.
Also, we were so happy to find a family restaurant called “Tomato and Onion” for lunch. It was clean and spacious, has A/C, WIFI and drink bar. In this island which does not even have convenience stores, this kind of restaurant is so precious.
After that, we need to climb uphill to the Sado gold mine, but it was just over 100m altitude, so not too bad. Inside the gold mine, because we saw not only tunnels and ancient carts and machines, but they also have many moving scenes by robots, which were very realistic. I could totally feel the mood at old times. It was surprising interesting.
After the gold mine, we also passed by abandoned buildings and shipyard, a broken bridge and old town. They all looked beautiful during sunset.
After the gold mine, it was already sunset time, so tried to stay at Tatsuja Beach, because it seemed to have free shower and toilet. However, as it turned out the toilet and shower at Tatsuja Beach only opens till 5pm, not 24 hours. Luckily, there was night canoeing tour there, so the toilet and toilet stayed open till 10pm that night. The warm coin shower was already closed, so we could only use the open cold shower outside. We just showed with our underwears on.
As it was already too dark to go anywhere else, we found another quiet place around Tatsuja Beach that had 24 hour toilet, ate our dinner in the dark along the beachside and camped there.
It was the first time we were night canoeing, it was beautiful. The canoes were lighted up underwater. Also, as it was a distance from town, we could see very clear night sky and lots of stars. It was not bad. We tried to camp on concrete floor, but it was too hot, so at midnight we moved our tent to grass but there were more bugs. We couldn’t sleep well, so we left early next morning.
[Day #4]
Next day, we left early because we couldn’t sleep well. We had to ride to the north that day, and the sun was already strong by 7am. We were desperate to arrive by noon, in order to avoid the hottest hours.
However, it was quite hilly at the north. The landscape was amazing though. There were many interesting rocks along the coast. We went through many tunnels. There were 2 big hills, so the place is called “two turtles”. We pushed the bike uphill and looked forward to have lunch at the only restaurant, Onogame Lodge, before our campsite, but it was closed. So, we bought cold drinks from vending machine, ate our cereal bars, and continued to ride to the campsite. We eventually arrived before noon!
We were so relieved that we spend an hour resting at the air-conditioned hotel lobby drinking beer and eating bread. The campsite we were staying, Futatsugame Camping Ground, is managed by the hotel.
The campsite was a bit downhill from the hotel. It does not require Reservation, but requires Reception before 4pm or so. Fee was 900yen per person. It has 2 warm shower cubicle, but it charges 300yen per 5min, so we just use a water hose to shower ourselves. We had all afternoon, so we walked downstairs to the beach, and washed our clothes to hang at the cooking area. You need to walk very long stairs down to the beach and walk up back to the campsite or hotel. There was tough. However, the beach was quite clean and calm. We did some snorkling.
We had early dinner at a picnic table on the cliff of campsite. It was so nice to enjoy the sunset and seaview during dinner. It was perfect.
[Day #5]
Futagame campsite was at the cliff, so at night it was very windy. Also, typhoon was coming, so next morning the wind speed was over 11m/s. We were a bit worried that the wind would break our tent. Luckily our tent was small and meshy, did not take much wind. There was a big tent next to us with their pole broken by wind.
This was our last day on Sato Island, and an easy day. We only had to ride 34km, mostly downhill or flat to the port, and take ferry back to Niigata.
However, it was so windy that we had to control our bikes carefully. It is in fact more difficult to ride a bike in strong wind than strong rain. Luckily, the wind gradually became weaker when we moved east.
We found a nice seafood restaurant at port for lunch, even drank coffee before getting on the ferry.
We relaxed on the ferry, and had a luxury last dinner at Niigata city center after checked into our hotel. We had camped and open cold showered for 4 days already. We missed the bed and warm shower so much! Also, I accidentally got very sunburnt at Futsugame beach, so I was desperate to look for drug store in Niigata.
[Day #6]
You could say this is the laziest or most boring day in this trip. We got up late, ate the simple breakfast from hotel, and headed out for little sightseeing. However, both Niigata City History Museum and Niigata Furumachi were not very interesting. Furumachi was surprisingly new and western-looking. However, many shops were closed. We found a nice steakhouse and teahouse to escape from the unforgiving sun, before heading to train station.
Having early rich dinner and local beer on Shinkansen (bullet train) while watching sunset was perhaps the best experience that day.
We decided to cycle & camp around this island in Summer holidays, because we thought that and island might be cooler there than the mainland, but it was like 37-38 degree Celsius and very sunny everyday. It was so hot that we had hard time sleeping in our mesh tent at night.
However, Sado Island is the most interesting and beautiful island in Japan that we have visited so far (other than Okinawa?), so I highly recommend it.
ITINERARY:
(Day 1) Take ferry from Niigata to Sado Island; Stay at Matsugasaki History Park; Total 39.1km
(Day 2) Stay at Hamosuhama Beach; Total 47.79km
(Day 3) Stay at Tatsuja Beach; Total 44.41km
(Day 4) Stay at Futatsugame Camping Ground; Total 44.62km
(Day 5) Take ferry back to Niigata; Stay at Niigata city; Total 38.22km
(Day 6) Sight-seeing in Niigata city; Take Shinkansen home; Total 8.68km
TOTAL CYCLED: 222.82km
Every trip is different, and every trip is somewhat pushing us to our limit. This has been the hottest summer and also the hottest cycling trip that I have ever experienced.
Although our trip to Northeast Japan was also very hot, but since we were mostly in town, we ended up only camped for one night, stayed in train station for one night, after that we could no longer stand the heat, and stayed at accomodation with A/C every night… It was so hot (above 30-35degC) that even though we only rode <50km everyday, it was tiring and we were soaking wet from sweat everyday…
This trip we were cycling around an island, which did not even have any convenience stories. There were only a few expensive hotels and guesthouses, so we chose to camp by the beach every night… The view of the sunrise/sunset and night sky from our mesh inner tent were amazing. It was so hot that we only use our travelling sheet on our air mat, no need for sleeping bag, never used the outer tent. We endured the steamy nights at seaside and windy night on hilltop, at that time we missed our comfortable bed very much, but now I miss my mesh tent.
We had camped for 5 nights in a row in Kagoshima, but we were able to find hot spring/public bath everyday, while in Sado Island there is no public bath. We sometimes took free cold water shower at beach or campsite, sometimes only use a water hose to shower in public—with our underwear on. It was new experience to me, and I was surprised that I could get used to shower with a water hose, and hand-wash my clothes everyday… I feel like learning new skills every single trip! I am so looking forward for even more adventures overseas!