It was hard to sleep in the inn because of all the noise. Not from all the drunken revelry of the middle-aged Japanese men (which usually happens in these places) but from the wind hitting my side of the building. It rattled the windows and kept most of the people awake, but I had earplugs in. My camera is still dead, but here are some grainy iPhone pictures instead.

We went around the southern half of the island and saw lots more weird stuff. We finally ran into other traffic as we got close to the tourist spots like the gold mine and the bird refuge. We ate at a popular soba restaurant that only had seating for about 20 people and was about half-full but didn’t see hardly anyone else in the town. Like I said before, there’s a lot of historical things on Sado Island, but not that many people.

I was asleep as we got to the pagoda so I’m not sure what its significance is.

We almost got stuck on the island, like I did last time, because of high seas. We ended up not even delayed and everyone was on their way. Unfortunately, my mom got sick on the train and looked bad enough that we called an ambulance and I’ve already told that part of the story.

Here’s day 2 of my trip to Japan, posted on day 4. I’m up early because we didn’t get back from the hospital until about 12:30AM but my aunt kept calling around 7. The people I’m staying with like to sleep in and I’m OK with that, but my jet lag makes me get up early. Right now my tentative plan is to ditch my mom here if it’s OK with the people I’m staying with and go meet my aunt in Osaka. She has my mom’s bank passbook (for people old enough to remember passbooks) and I need to get that anyway.

We took the “Jet Boat” to Sado Island today. The Jet Boat is a hydrofoil made by Boeing in Seattle and goes about 50mph, cutting the trip from 2 1/2 hours on the regular ferry to just 1 hour. We spent the rest of the day driving all the way around the northern half of the island. Sado Island is an interesting place. There aren’t many people but historically there were interesting people exiled there, like the founder of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism and former deposed emperors. There are a lot of historic sites but you don’t see many cars until you hit the touristy areas. The coast of the island is quite rocky, and you can barely see it in the picture of me horsing around (which was requested by the brains behind the gym). We never stopped down by the water, but if we did you’d see some pretty rough beach.

The picture is next to the “two turtles”. They’re next to another “turtle” that happens to be “One of Japan’s three Largest Rocks.” I’m not sure what that means. It wasn’t the season for the “Gregariousness of Yellow Day Lilies” either.

After we looped around the northern half of the island, we went to the highest point on the island. Just like most of Japan, Sado Island has a lot of steep volcanic hills. Here’s a picture of the plains that are located in the wasp-waist of the island.

We’re staying at a traditional Japanese minshuku tonight, which means no intarweb, sleeping on the floor, and a communal bath. We did get a spectacular dinner with more fish than I should eat in several meals. Crab, a dozen types of sashimi, tempura, zarusoba, shabu-shabu, turban shell, and the grossest thing was a pair of live abalone we grilled at the table. The worst part about it is that I don’t even like abalone that much.

I hope to have more pictures as well, but I forgot to bring a charger for my camera and it doesn’t seem to charge via USB. Phooey.

We made it off the island and survived the traditional Japanese inn and the abalone being cooked alive on the table in front of us, but as soon as we hit the train my mom started having stomach pains. By the time we were off the train she was shivering uncontrollably and we had to call an ambulance. I have now experienced a Japanese ambulance (chaotic and 3rd world) and a Japanese ER waiting room. She’s now in a room with 3 other people while she recovers from pneumonia.

So I guess the rest of my vacation may be spent sitting around a hospital. And then figuring out how I’m going to pay for my mom’s hospital stay because we don’t have Japanese insurance. Hooray.