Since we were all cleared in to port we had the day to explore locally on foot. Ogi is just an ordinary port town, but we soon noticed something a bit out of the usual just nearby to where we were tied up on the jetty. Music had started up, and tourists were being ferried around in these funny round tub boats. Think “rub a dub three men in a tub” nursery rhyme and you’ll probably get a good picture of what they look like.
It was fascinating. Known as tarai-bune, these boats were originally used to collect seaweed and abalone. A lady in traditional dress propels it along by working a single paddle in a figure of eight motion. While we didn’t go for a ride, it was quite amusing to see the tourists have a go paddling, no doubt thinking it would be easy, and failing miserably! There is obviously some technique involved here.
While the background music that went all day drove me around the bend, Dean decided it was his cue to hum along do this weird hip swivel dance as we walked down the street and said it made him feel like he was in a foreign land. If you play the video below with the sound on, you too can get in the groove!
Just behind the dock a large building piqued our interest as we could see a mast through the high top windows. Using trusty google translate to read the sign on the door, we saw we could enter and take a look at the ship inside. It was the last supply ship of its kind used between the 1940-60’s and thus it had been preserved.
I just marvel that things like this are carefully kept for historical purposes, and you can just go in and take a look, no entrance fee, no cameras, no supervisor. All on a trust basis. In today’s society, it is really nice.
We made our way to the information centre across the road which provided us with a map and also instructions to where to find the local car hire company. So next stop, organising a car for a drive around the island on Sunday.
This was no problem now I had my international drivers licence, and was a reasonable price for the day, with added insurance not exorbitant either.
As we wandered up the road we had a funny encounter. A group of three ordinary looking Japanese people, a man and two women stopped us and gave us a large poster. Even using google translate it took as a while to realise they were some weird Buddhist sect.
The first inkling was that they want to help people be happy and Australia is unhappy. Dean said, no we are happy. They were taken aback and there was a lot of chatter among them. Then they asked us to chant with them to stop bad things from happening. Dean said, no, you can chant but we don’t want to chant with you. Again they were bewildered that we would not do this with them and lots of chatter. We then smiled and said have a lovely day, good bye, but we are going to keep walking.
Later Dean researched them, and they are part of a militant sect that think the world is going to end. I can see how easy it would be for vulnerable people to be sucked into stuff like this. Especially under Buddhism, that people think is all warm and gooey.
As we walked along the streets we weren’t sure if this was a town in decline, or things like parks not mowed for instance, was to allow the spring flowers to bloom for the bees and birds. But we were thinking more decline.
The houses weren’t especially beautiful, but the vegetable gardens were still planted with a glorious array of flowers. This tiny house caught our eye!
And it had some lovely flowers in its garden. Considering it snows on Sado Island, and I imagine it is a bitter cold winter, I adore this celebration of spring with flowers.
In town we saw a building with a device that we’ve seen before in other places but couldn’t work out what it was. So we took the time to read the signs, and it for husking your rice! There is a lot of rice paddy’s on this island.
Another interesting building we saw was the one pictured below. Styled to look like a ship, it was……wait for it…..a building to house an ATM!
We had lunch, then picked up a few things from the supermarket. RTP was still happily tied up on the dock.
In the afternoon we decided to go for a walk on the hill that you can see behind the boat in the picture above. On the way we passed a not insignificantly sized shrine that looked as if it was falling into disrepair. It is such a shame because the huge timbers, if not preserved will rot away. A message we keep hearing, is that if the priest dies and there is no-one to replace them, then the shrine will not be maintained. And of course it costs a lot of money to do so.
There are some massive shrines on this island and there is a good reason for this. Sado island used to be extremely wealthy, with gold and silver mines. It has the oldest gold mine in the world and during the 1600’s it was one of the largest producers in the world. Mining operations stopped in 1989.
We walked up a steep road to get to the top of the hill. A large expanse of grass in the middle is obviously a popular spot for locals, and there were many families taking advantage of the warm sunny weather.
There is a walking track around the edge, but it was a bit of a disappointment for us. Overgrown, the jungle had taken hold, and where there should have been nice view points, overgrown trees blocked the way.
So we took a track back down to walk along the pathway around the base of the hill. When we got there we could go back in the direction of the boat which was only a few minutes away, but the pathway leading the other way around towards the fishing boat harbour was closed.
That was really annoying. We probably will never be back here, so naturally we took the closed path.
It was a rugged piece of coastline. The pathways were quite damaged ?a storm ?an earthquake. We don’t know but by the looks of the gates saying it was closed, they looked like they had been in place a long time. There were boulders on the pathway that we weren’t sure if had come from the cliffs above or from the sea.
Well it looked like from the sea. You can see where the shore is lined, there were actually holes where those boulders belonged. That must have been one hell of a storm to dislodge them and wash them up.
In that same photo above if you look at the cliff behind the pathway you can see two completely different kind of rock layers. At the bottom a layer of sandstone, then on top a distinct layer of darker rock from the volcanic activity. For geologists, Sado Island has a rich history, and is designated what is called a Geopark, where the “earth itself” is the attraction and there is a lot of information available to learn about it as you travel around the island.
On our way back through this part of town, we walked past a collapsed house. Looking through the hole, the TV and furniture was all still in place, shoes were still in the shoe rack. What had happened to the person inside? Why didn’t they need their shoes anymore? A picture of sadness.
Then on the same street a treasured tree is propped up, and is growing around a postal box. A picture of beauty.
Still in a state of confusion about the town, we returned to our part of the port. The tourists have gone home, either returned to the mainland on the ferry, or back to their accommodation for dinner. The tarai-bune, all tied up, tubs in a row, waiting for the next load of tourists to arrive in the morning.
Run to Paradise 