Riding in a Washtub?

 April 19, 2025 Saturday

When we went to breakfast at 7:00 AM, it seemed the entire group from Hawaii was already there.

I guess we spent too much time admiring all the origami displayed around the hotel. The toki bird had wings that flapped when you pulled the tail.

Since we had time before the departure of our tour bus, we took a walk around Senkaku Bay.

We couldn't resist having our photos taken with Arnold and Nancy. 

We also had a group photo taken with the tour group near the beautiful bay.

Our next stop before going to Ogi port to catch the jet foil to return to Niigata was the Ex-commissioner's office that was once managed by the Tokugawa government in the Edo period (1603 to 1867).

We saw how gold was separated from rocks. 

There was also an exhibit showing how gold dust was separated from other debris.

When we arrived at Ogi port, we were told we'd be experiencing a ride in a tarai-bune (traditional wash tub boats).

AI Overview:

Originally developed for fishing, particularly by woman divers (Ama), tarai-bune allowed for better navigation of the rocky coastline. 

When I spoke to our oarswoman she was surprised that I was able to converse a bit in Japanese. 

Mom had warned me not to speak in Japanese while in Japan because I don't often know the correct grammar. There are also different levels of conversation with how you speak to or refer to someone of a higher (boss), same or lower (child) level, not to mention male or female language. Sigh...

So I was careful. 😌

We then got to experience the Onidaiko festival. Onidaiko translates to demon drumming.

This is from the Sado Tourism Navi website:

It is unknown when the tradition of Onidaiko started on Sado Island. The oldest known record of Onidaiko is an illustration of the Aikawa Festival that dates back to around 1744. Onidaiko is very often performed at local temple and shrine festivals especially around April (rice planting season) and October (rice harvesting season) to pray for an abundant crop. Though not official events, you may happen to run into an Onidaiko performance during a stroll through the streets “off-season”, as well, when they perform “Kadozuke” within their community, going from door to door to cleanse every household from harmful energy. The Oni dances to the rhythm of the taiko drum, then enters the house, taking all the bad energy upon himself. When it comes out again, the Oni brushes off the bad energy sticking to its hair and body with drum sticks while dancing and drums it into the taiko.

We also saw a theater with robots, but uuummm... not sure what it was about.

We then boarded the jet foil and returned to Niigata and were welcomed by Erika and Jackie who were not with us on the trip to Sado Island.

April 20, 2025 Easter Sunday, Niigata

A tour member had thought ahead and brought fun little Easter eggs with chocolates to hand out to everyone on the bus. 

Our first stop of the day was Niigata Furusato (Hometown) Village. It was fun to see so many beautiful tulips in Japan. 

We had to take a photo of Jackie and Erika clowning around with Micah, our Hawaii Tohoku tour escort. 

Erika told us that tulips were first introduced to Niigata in 1914 and that their climate was perfect for growing tulips. There's a tulip festival there from April to May.

We  then stopped at this senbei factory where we could heat our own senbei.

Senbei are rice crackers. There are many, many different kinds of senbei.

We stopped at the Aeon Mall where we bought uuummmm.... quite a number of things.

I was at this desk applying to have our purchases in a tax free bag since we spent more than 5,000 yen (about $35.00).

And yes, we also stopped at this 100 yen (70¢) store. 

It was fun to see the Ichishima House. The house was established in 1897. It was interesting to see how the wealthy lived in that era.

We were on the last few days of our trip so it was great to be able to sit with my cousin, Arnold, Nancy and Phyllis. We're hoping to travel again with them someday.

After our elegant dinner, it was fun to see Micah, Matt and Tiger sing and play on the percussion drums for us. It turned out that Micah is from a musical family in Hawaii. The surprise for me was that he knew my nephew who was also a musician/singer in Hawaii when he was younger.

It was a very lovely ending to a fun day.