trip to Sado
This actually happened not last weekend, but the weekend before, which was a 3 day weekend. Weekend weekend weekend! But the story must be told. Photos will follow shortly.
Day 1: in which the Author and his Companions star in a James Bond film
Last weekend was a three day vacation, and a few of us from the area wanted to take a road trip somewhere, so we decided to visit Sado island on the Japan Sea coast. The four of us piled into a kei car and hopped on the expressway, leaving work a couple hours early so that we could get to our first stop before dinner. Since we couldn't make it to the island in one day, I had reserved a hot spring resort hotel just before the coast, with dinner and breakfast included. The original resort was apparently built in the 60's or early 70's, with the same sort of decor that would appear in a James Bond film.
We checked in to our double suite (!) and sat down to a feast of epic proportions. Oyster soup, pickles of various kinds, fruits, vegetables, a few different kinds of fish, and something sweet that none of us could identify. We bathed in the onsen for awhile, played some hearts, and went to sleep.
Day 2: in which the Author gets a Life (or at least rents one)
After a rather large Japanese-style breakfast and some coffee, we checked out of the 007 hotel and made a beeline for the ferry terminal. The website said that the ferry didn't take reservations, and although we had arrived an hour and a half before the ferry left, they didn't have space for our car, and the next ferry wouldn't leave for another 3 hours. Disgusting. After much wringing of hands, we decided to park the car, catch the next jetfoil we could, and rent a car once we got there. Ironically even after all of this, we still arrived at the same time as the original car ferry, and spent less money overall. (I have no idea why it costs three times as much to ferry a car over and back than it does to rent for 24 hours, but it does.) The car rental place had a kei minivan left for us: a Honda Life. Yes, the car is called a "Life". I had to say, though, that it was a lot less painful to rent here than I thought. I showed my driver's license, they photocopied it, and then I was in the car ready to go within 2 or 3 minutes.
We drove across the ocean and up the coast to watch the sun set, before driving to the southern tip of the island to check in to our hostel. The hostel was run by an old lady with a house on a farm, and she had a hearty home-cooked dinner waiting for us when we arrived. As we were the only guests, we had a chance to chat with her for awhile, and then we finished our meal and went to the baths down the street. Though they weren't as nice as the mountain resort, one pool had some seat-shaped indentations with jets that gave a great massage. Some of the locals gave us some advice on what to see on the island, and we discussed our plans back at the hostel.
Day 3: in which Heather shows mercy
As we had limited time on the island, we decided to see the gold mine and maybe a temple or two on the way back, if there was time before the ferry left. The gold mine tour was pretty short; I guess that gold had been found about 400 years ago, and people had been tunneling it out of the rock since then. The gold mine tour is basically a museum that shows how the ore was extracted, the different techniques used to pull seepage water out of the mine, the refining techniques, and some other things. One particularly interesting exhibit was a gold brick inside a lexan case with a fist-sized hole cut in it. The sign said that if you could remove the brick from the case, you could have a 1/4 size replica of it, in gold of course. The brick, about a foot long, weighed 12.5 kg, and was quite slippery. All those movies you see about people moving gold in briefcases are full of shit. That stuff is HEAVY. Most people couldn't even pry it off the velvet case bottom to hold it in their hand. There was one guy there who was able to lift it up, and was almost able to slide it out over his forearm, but his wrist was too big.
We left after a few hours, and stopped at a couple temples on the way (thank you in-car GPS). It was raining quite heavily, so we didn't spend all that much time taking photos, but both the places we stopped were quite unique in their architecture. (Side point: I switched my headlights on during the rain because visibility was almost nil. No fewer than 3 drivers flashed their brights at me as if to say, "Dude, your headlights are on!" For a culture that seems so obsessed with signs about driving safely, they sure don't act like it.) We made it back to the ferry with plenty of time to spare, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed back up the coast toward Atsumi onsen.
We were greeted at the door around 7 pm by the rather intoxicated proprietor of the inn, who seemed surprised to see us. I guess they had expected us to call that day and confirm our reservations, or there was a miscommunication, but in any case they had a room ready for us. Dinner that night was truly a feast fit for a king: we each got our own crab, two or three soups with mussels and vegetables and various things, a filet of a very sweet fish, a giant fish head (which, surprisingly, was quite delicious once I figured out which parts were edible), and a mushroom stew. Then they brought in a plate to share amongst ourselves, which had several types of sashimi, raw shrimp, squid, abalone, some sort of sea snail, and a split open lobster which was still alive and moving. Heather took pity on the poor critter, and calling upon her biology classes and knowledge of sea creatures, put an end to its misery by skewering its nerve cluster with a wooden spike. He was delicious.