Sado Island

This is where I grew up and where I live now with my parents. It’s an island in the Japan Sea, off the coast of Niigata in the central region of Japan. The population is around 70,000, and the size of the island is about 855 square kilometers, or 330 square miles.

There is no college, no train, no high way, no movie theater, no stadium, no MacDonald's, … There are not many people of my age because most of them leave Sado to go to school or to work in cities in the main land. They normally decide to stay in cities and never come back to Sado, not until they retire at least. Sado is an aging place, and the population is getting smaller each year.

When I tell this to people, they often ask me questions like “what’s there for fun?”, “don’t you ever get bored?”, “don’t you wanna move to somewhere else?” etc. They don’t say but it’s obvious that they are assuming it’s lonely and boring to live in such a place.

I’m not going to say Sado is perfect, nor am I to compare Sado with somewhere else in the world, because I’m aware that there are a lot of problems and inconveniences in Sado, and that each place on earth is different and it’s impossible to make easy comparisons. But it’s still true that I like Sado very much. There’s so much that I treasure and appreciate: clean air and clear water; tall mountains with lots of trees on them; flat fields suitable for rice farming; wide variety of landscapes, flowers, plants, wildlife; friendly and relaxed people with few obsessions with fashion and consumerism; safety; and dark, silent nights. Practical knowledge and wisdom necessary for people to live in harmony with nature have been passed down from old generations, such techniques as charcoal making, bamboo and rice straw handicraft, weaving, pottery making, not to mention farming, fishing and foraging techniques. Some form of entertainment is available on the island, such as Noh, or a traditional musical drama performance, a puppet theater, a Sado-based, world-known Japanese drum group Kodo, etc.

I feel very blessed to have grown up on Sado. There’s so much that money can’t buy, on this island. I think it’s a great place if you want to enjoy beauty of the nature and appreciate the quietness. Please do let me know if you are ever interested in coming to Sado. I’ll do my best to make your Sado experience the best one.

Today I ...

had a fever when I woke up in the morning.

focused all my attention and energy to let it go away.

succeeded to do so after 6 hours of fighting.

went to an art workshop at the community center and learned how to draw different
patterns with colors from a Sado-born&raised, Paris-based artist.

went on a jog and ran for 40min, about 6-7km.

stretched and walked before and after that to warm-up and cool-down.

made dinner (organic brown rice, vegetable soup with onion, garlic, ginger, carrots, cabbage, kabocha squash, dried bay leaf, sea salt and olive oil, and salad with red turnip and black olive).

read a book.

learned chess strategies.

did stretching and resistance training.

I'm pretty happy.

Today’s dinner

Buck wheat noodles my dad made, with the see weed he picked on the beach
Tempura: carrots and butterbur sprout (see images: http://images.inmagine.com/img/mixa/mx042/mx042010.jpg) my dad found in the woods
Taro cooked in Kombu broth
Daikon radish salad

Butterbur sprout, or fuki no too in Japanese is one of the early spring wild plants that we can find around our house. It’s a bit bitter and strong.

市, Ichi, or Market

We have this farmer’s market held twice a month in the center of the town I live with my parents. The size of the market varies according to the season and is getting smaller compared to when I was small, due to the decrees of local farmers and population of Sado island. Now there are about 20 booths set up on the street. Most of the venders sell vegetables but some sell flowers, fruit, fish, see vegetables, seeds, bamboo baskets, etc.

I like going to the market. The venders only bring seasonal and local food, which is what I think is great and something I want to support. I can see changes in variety each time I go to the market and that’s also fun for me.

What I enjoy the most though, is the conversation with the venders. The people who come sell at the market are almost the same every time and I go there regularly so we remember each other. I feel somewhat at home. The venders (who are mostly old ladies) are also very friendly, kind, and talkative. I often ask them questions about the items they have or just how they are doing. They answer my questions frankly.

One day I sew a vender selling kiwi fruit, which is kind of rare to find in the market. So I asked her if she grows them on Sado. She then said, “Oh, they grow in our back yard. My family started growing them just for ourselves but we get so many that we bring some here now. We don’t spray anything on them. They are very sweet and tasty.” Of course I bought some from her :). Anyway just a small conversation like this brightens me up so much for some reason and makes me like the market so much.

But I get sad sometimes at the market. The main reason is because I feel sorry for the farmers. They grow food working so hard everyday and share the food with me and other consumers. But they can’t make a living just by growing food because vegetables are so cheap and there is not much support for them. Majority of people, even in Sado go to big supermarkets and buy much cheaper food grown on huge scale farms and/or imported from overseas.

Well but those local farmers might become the most powerful when society collapses. All I can/should do now I think is to respect farmers, learn from them, and become able to grow my own food.

Yuko, let's go running in the cold!

I went running again with my dad today. We ran about 6 km along the beach, the same route we took yesterday. There was icy snow on the street so it was so slippery. It was also cold (probably around 2 C or 35 F) and windy. My back was hurting. It was pretty much the worst condition ever. But it turned out to be a great opportunity to train my body and mind.

I decided my back was hurting because my running posture wasn’t correct. I tried to run leaning slightly forward, keeping my back straight at the same time. That little change not only let my back pain go away but also made it easier for my legs to slide forward to my surprise. When I realized, I was running faster than before, without any pain in my back. That was the best present from today’s run and made me so happy and grateful.

I feel I’ve been getting stronger both physically and mentally each day since I started running seriously. I know I will become even stronger, as long as I keep trying. So I will never give up. I will keep running.

I did it!

I ran 7km today so I did 20km total this week.
I have been building up my stamina and have been able to run longer at a time than before, so I think it will be easier to run 20km a week from now on.
I've been enjoying running, which is great more than anything.
Yes! :)

Today’s dinner

Turnip and carrot in tahini Miso sauce (The recipe follows below)
Brown rice porridge with wild herbs and azuki beans (by my dad)
Miso soup with shiitake mushroom and tofu
Grated daikon radish

So here comes more about the turnip dish.
I made this with whatever I could find in the kitchen. The inspiration comes from the dish a friend in Canada made out of the dumpstered turnip.
Any way it turned out great and my mom liked it a lot too so I’m going to write the recipe so any of you can try making this if you want to.
I rarely measure ingredients when I cook so the list of ingredients is kind of rough, just so you know…

INGREDIENTS:
3 turnip root
1-2 carrot
A bunch of turnip greens
2 tbs tahini
2 tbs Miso
1 tbs Mirin, or maple syrup
1 tbs grated ginger
2 tbs rapeseed oil
1 tbs sesame seed oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Slice the turnip root and carrot and chop turnip greens.
2. Combine tahini, Miso, Mirin and ginger in a small bowl.
3. Heat oils in a pan, add turnip root and carrot, then turnip greens and fry them for about 5 min.
4. When the veggies are cooked and soft, add the tahini sauce, stir and cook for a few more min.

That’s it! Pretty simple huh? It took me only 15 min or so to make this.I like it that I can use the whole turnip (both root and leaves) in this recipe.Turnip greens are rich in vitamin C. It’s better not to waste it, isn’t it? :)

Thanks for reading! See you again!