Last weekend I went on a planned trip with some friends from work for a ride on Sado Island. The event was a 210 km ride around the entire island. Over 2000 other people registered to do the same ride. There were 2 or 3 shorter options but I am not sure the number of participants for those rides. It all started at 6:oo am for me when Hakamata san arrived at my house in his giant Hiace van. Ito san now lives in Tokyo so he spent the night at my house as he would have had to leave his at 4:00 am to make our planned start time of 6:00. From my house we went to Maeshima sans to pick him up.
Once the four of us and the bikes were loaded we were of to Nigata. Nigata is the city the ferry left from to go to Sado island. The arrow in the picture below is pointing to Sado and the star is about were Utsunomiya is.
We arrived at Nigata in time for lunch so we walked around the pier a little. There were a number of boats with huge lights hanging from them. Apparently ika (squid) are attracted to light. These were squid fishing boats. They go out at night and turn on the lights to attract the squid and then fish them out.
Anyway, the reason we left so early from Utsunomiya is because we had to catch a specific ferry from Nigata to get to Sado island. We arrived early enough so there was no stress to register and board the ferry.
Maeshima san, Ito san, and I paid an extra fee to take our bicycles whole. They were carefully strapped down in the cargo area.
Hakamata san put his bicycle in a bag along with the majority of the other riders. His was then hung on a clothes line for the trip to the island.
Here is the view of Nigata from the boat as we floated away.
Our ride took about 2 hr 30 min on the huge ferry, but as we were making our trip the more expensive hydrofoil boat blew past us heading to Sado.
We paid for a second class ticket which gave us access to a number of rooms on the boat. There was a small walking area and the rest was carpeted. Everyone took their shoes off and claimed space on the floor for the ride. I can't see this working in the US as nobody would take their shoes off and the carpet would quickly get soiled to the point nobody would want to lay on it.
After a few hours the intercom came to life to announce we were close and should start preparing to get off the boat. The island looked beautiful as we approached. Hakamata san went to get his bagged bike and the rest of us went below deck to retrieve our complete bikes.
Once we were unloaded it was a short ride to our hotel. There were two options for registration for the ride. #1 register the night before at the kick off event, #2 register in the morning. We decided to register the night before, our hotel was on the ferry side so we had to ride 20 km to the start to register and 20 km back. Registering the night before meant we could arrive at the start at 5:45 am so it was worth it. After arriving at the hotel for the night we were asked to leave the bikes in the lobby for the night. Ito san convinced the hotel to let us keep them in the room.
Our hotel was a traditional Japanese style hotel so along with the room we got dinner and breakfast as well as admission to an onsen (hot spring). This is me and Maeshima sitting down for dinner.
There were a variety of foods for dinner. I actually left with a completely full stomach. This is a good view of the meal. Since we were leaving so early in the morning we were given a small bento for breakfast in our room.
The next morning we got up before the sun rose got ready and rode the 20 km to the start point. We were greeted by a huge mass of riders. The start was staggered so although the event started at 6:00 am we didn't actually start until 6:30 am.
The ride was extremely well organized and the roads were smooth and clean. Maeshima took this as we rode through one of the many towns. This event is a big deal for the island and it was nice to see many of the local people came out to wave and cheer the riders as we went by. They would clap and say ganbaret (do your best). The man in the background was one of those people.
The island itself is beautiful and the water is very clear. We could see the bottom as we rode along. There were also many people fishing and gathering kelp and other see life from the ocean.
Although the ride was around the perimeter of the island it was not flat. There were actually a number of climbs on the route and some were pretty challenging. The below picture was taken from a fairly challenging climb. You can see the road snaking along up the hillside.
We stopped about 2/3 up to take some pictures. Pictured below from left to right is: Ito san, me, Hakamata san, and Maeshima san.
This is looking out over the ocean from the same spot. Notice how blue the water is and you can see the bottom as well.
There were so many beautiful photo opportunities on the way but it would be impossible to stop and take pictures of them all and finish the ride in time. There were two things that kept us moving along. #1. There was a time cut off at all of the stations and if you did not pass the station by that cut off you were taken off the course. We were never in danger of this one. #2. We had to get back in time to catch the last ferry to Nigata as 3 of the four of us had to work the next day.
We were very lucky in that the weather was great. It was a little cool, but sunny. With the exception of only one other year of this event it has rained on this day. I think that made all the difference in our enjoyment level.
There were a total of 7 rest stops with water and a variety of foods available to eat. All included with the price of admission to the event.
I have to admit this was by far the best organized cycling event I have ever attended. Almost every corner along the route was staffed with a flagger to direct traffic as well as any area on the course that could be considered dangerous. The rest stops were well placed, food was readily available, water and sports drink, as well as entertainment. The entertainment varied and looked to be put on by local high school students. The movie below was of some Japanese drums. The children would rotated to keep the drums going all day. We could hear them for a good ways as we approached the rest stop and as we road off.
At one stop I saw these huge barrels with people riding them. The woman standing would swing the paddle left and right to propel the barrel forward in the water. I also saw these being used to collect seaweed in other parts of the island.
At this point we were 120 km in. Everyone in our group held up pretty well. We could see a number of others that did not hold up so well. At about 180 km in there was a 15% hill. That hill at that point in the ride forced a number of other riders to walk or weave back and force across the road to lessen the angle a little. Before the event we all agreed that we would ride hard up the hills for training before Fuji. This one was no exception, Hakamata san and I rode very aggressively up it and as we passed the other riders I heard a number of "nani's" and "honto's" which is basically "What" and "are you serious". It was kind of funny. Actually throughout the day we all kept a very positive attitude. Maeshima would periodically attack on what he thought were smaller hills. When they were smaller hills he could make it to the top first, but a number of times the hills were not so small and as we rounded the corner they just kept going up. On those I would ride past him whistling and laughing.
Here we are at the finish. It was pretty cool, we rode with chips in an ankle bracelet and so a sensor was tripped before the finish. That gave the announcers our information and they congratulated us by name as we crossed the finish point. On the day we ended up riding 250 km (155 miles) because we rode to the start from our hotel and then back after finishing.
Below is the island and our route. Our hotel was on the right in the middle so we rode across to the start and then around clockwise.
We finished with enough time to hit the hotel's onsen one last time and then loaded into the ferry to head back to Nigata.
On the ferry I saw this sign that made me sick. It basically says "watch out don't jump" with abunai written in a red blood like blotch. The fact that this sign exist probably means somebody scraped the top of their scalp off at this point....ewwww.
We arrived at Nigata at about 9:30 pm. We were all tired from the ride and travel. Maeshima san is playing up a little in the picture. At this point we had more than three hours of driving left and with the traffic jam getting out of the parking lot we didn't get home until after 2 am. Hakamata was even later as he drove. Then the next day 3 of the 4 of us had to go to work. I was pretty tired, but still somewhat productive. In the end it was all worth it...
While I was on the ride Kate and the children went to pick up two ducklings from the Takanezawa community center. Last year we were given the opportunity to take them home as well, but we decided not to as we had a lot going on and were not sure how to take care of them. This year we were feeling pretty settled and decided the children would really enjoy it so we agreed to try it. We will have them for two weeks and then they will be let go in our rice field for pest/weed control. The children got to pick two from a big box of baby ducklings.
Both children have really taken to them and I think the ducklings have taken to the children. Here they are sleeping on Colleen. The neighbor children have also been over a number of times to play with them since they arrived at our home. Both Liam and Colleen enjoy holding them.
Kate and the children filled a plastic tub with water for the ducklings to play in. They really enjoy it and go crazy when you put them in it. About once or twice a day the children are taking them out to spend time outside rather than in the box we were given to care for them in.
Here they are out in the yard.
That is all for this post, have a great week..
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