Niigata

I took the opportunity to visit the city of Niigata on the “mainland” yesterday. I hadn’t been before except for in transit on the way to Sado. I had been warned that we are getting close to the time of year when the ferries may be cancelled due to sea conditions and you can get stranded, so I decided to visit now. There are things there that are just unavailable on the island. This time, instead of taking the car ferry, I took the jetfoil. It’s a bit more expensive but it saves an hour and a half of travel time. I also get a Sado resident discount, so in all it was pretty reasonable. The ride was very smooth as well. I also ran into several of my middle school students on the boat. It turned out they were the volleyball team on the way to a game elsewhere in the prefecture. I wished them luck and told them “ganbatte”, the typical way to cheer someone on in Japan.

Niigata is a city of around one million people. While this is small by American standards, it is seen as a major city in Japan. As such, it has all the standard facilities you’d expect from a major city, such as an international airport, a shinkansen, and a few universities. I was surprised by the lack of train infrastructure though. Niigata seemed to me like a “car city”. I did enjoy walking through the city though. I even ran across a fellow JET by chance at a local trading card store. He teaches at elementary schools in the city. I also found several interesting shops, parks, and restaurants that I definitely want to come back and explore more. Overall, it was a nice little day trip and I look forward to returning to Niigata at some point in the future.