Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Wikipedia for Sado Island

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sado_Island

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Facts about Sado (That's Where I'll be Living)



Sado Facts
Since you probably don’t know anything about Sado, here are some facts so you can know a little bit about where I will be living.
- Sado, AKA Sadogashima, is an island off the west coast of Niigata Prefecture. (Picture Above). It used to be used as an exile island. (I thought it was a joke at first when I found out they sent me there. EXILE! Really?)
- It is 330 sq. miles in area and it sits about 30 miles off mainland Japan. By ferry, the only way to get on the island, it is around 2 ½ hours.
- It has a population of around 66,000 people. The island is rather rural; a noticeable portion of the island fishes or farms for their main source of income.
- The winter in Sado is known to be quite bleak, but the mainland gets far more snow than Sado. Despite the rough winters, spring, summer, and fall are supposed to be amazing.
- Sado is famous for taiko drumming, sake brewing, Noh plays (traditional Japanese masked performances), and being a good place to see a bit of traditional Japan.
- Sado sports beaches, 2 mountain chains, and plenty of lush landscape.
- Important to me personally, they have a very active community that is quite involved in sports. The island has quite a good number of local races throughout the year. Oh, and the crown jewel of all the races: A Yearly Triathlon held every September. Thank you God!
- My town, called Hamochi, only has about 4000 people in it so I’m probably going to stick out.

Oh well, I posted the Wikipedia page as a link above so you can go to that as well. Enjoy!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The Beginning

This is the first of what I hope will be many interesting blog posts over the next year.
Starting July 25th, I will be living and teaching English in Japan. I will be stationed on the island of Sado off the coast of Niigata. I will be posting some info about it soon.
If you are reading this, I'd just like to say, Hey Friend/Family Member, and I hope you enjoy this blog.