Earth Celebration Day 2!

Breakfast spread prepared by inn-lady:

After breakfast, took a walk around the area of our inn (Yajima). It’s a craggy volcanic islet; very pretty and scenic. There are also glass-bottom tub boat rides available. The wooden tub boats are a traditional mode of transportation for the Sado island people. Its basically like rowing a bathtub. Very inefficient, I think!

Photos of Yajima area:



Our inn is just behind the houses in this photo:

Check out the wooden tub boats:

Even the manhole covers feature the tub boats (there, right at the centre, u can see a lady wearing a hat rowing the tub boat):

Then, we went for all these free fringe performances, some of which were very good! Only problem was the sun was scorching that day and all the performances were outdoors, so we all ended up sunburnt (especially my uncle’s poor over-exposed head). There was also a flea market selling hippy clothes, knick-knacks, food, etc. The amount of people at the event was unbelievable!

Masahiro Mizuno, who can hit 2 drums with one hand while twirling a drumstick in the other!

Miyake Taiko group, which was so good, we went back on the final day to watch them again! Recorded short movie clips of them too (but can't post the movie clips here). Yes, I know you see more heads than drummers in the pic. They were so good that the crowd just rushed forward to watch and take pictures.

Kodo youth group performance

Demon drummers

Also visited the Hokusetsu Sake Brewery in the next town, Akadomari for free sake tasting!

Check out this spider we saw on the street! It was BIG I tell you. And brightly coloured too! Must be poisonous!

Did not go to the concert tonight coz it was only the invited foreign artiste performing. Kodo invites a different foreign artiste to perform with them every year. This year, its Carlos Nunez who plays Spanish bagpipes.