Biking 100 kilometers around Sado Island (May 29 2025)
Today we head out to Sado Island, a large island famous for its gold mines, sake and natural rice farming to protect the crested ibis (their mascot everywhere including Sado Milk!), and drumming. It’s located a short one hour jetfoil ferry away. To make our early morning ferry we had to jog a bit in order to save some time since we needed to arrive a bit early to pick up tickets and figure things out. Google maps should add jogging as an additional option because we would be using this ‘turbo touring’ mode a lot on Sado Island.
Once we arrived at the island, we rented some bikes and thankfully I convinced Rebecca to go for electric (as we’ll see later). The rental lady had warned us that the battery may not last for the entire loop and that there would be a lot of elevation, more so than Shimanami Kaido apparently.
Our first destination was Onogame which was 36km away and the slopes didn’t feel that bad. The difficult part was actually the tunnels because sometimes they would not have any sidewalks and it was dark so that was scary. Also, this entire path was not as paved or safe feeling as Shimanami and there were plenty of mountainous, winding paths where thankfully there was a mirror to allow for cars to see us before we became one with the road. Another shortfall was we only ate one onigiri for breakfast because we were rushing to get onto the ferry, so by the time we arrived to Onogame, we were famished and had to eat 3 entrees to fuel up (with all the local Sado rice).
Afterwards we climbed with full bellies up Onogame, “a 167meter high monolith projecting into the sea”. Up to this point we had seen no other bikers on the road, but there were plenty of tourists that had arrived by car or bus. This hike was not an easy one and it was really steep with few manmade steps, mostly dirt and grass that gave poor footing. I was impressed that a few ojisans and obachans went up. I also fell once but thankfully Rebecca didn’t catch it on camera heh.
The view up there was incredible though and definitely worth the hike. One of the best views: plenty of hills and mountains with a cozy restaurant situated at the bottom. The famous fields of flowers was also at the bottom bordered by the ocean and lightly dotted with other tourists to give perspective on size and distance. Add in the backdrop of the endless ocean and the view really emphasized the majesty of nature and Earth and how small we were. Flight is still one of my top desired superpowers for this sole reason.
Anyways, aside from Onogame, the next 67km trek to our hotel did not have any major landmarks or rest areas/conbinis/restaurants (woops). However, the views along the way were spectacular (as were the views getting to Onogame). Endless hills and mountains filled with little towns quietly farming their terraced fields or sometimes right next to the ocean / beachside (reminds me of my animal crossing home by the beach). A lot of loner homes isolated far from the nearest town, and some were abandoned. Many many tunnels, some long and some short but always digging through imposing mountains that often looked fake with how smooth their rock surfaces were (like the ones at rock climbing gyms).
Thanks to the elevation there were many scenes where we overlooked an upcoming landmark or town and Rebecca suggested that there were a few scenes that seemed to be the direct influence for Breath of the Wild, which I wholeheartedly agree with. There were not as many bridges as Shimanami, nor were they as large, but they had incredible views nonetheless. My favorite is probably the short but highly elevated arch bridge over the Daizare River. It’s so ‘insignificant’ that it is not even a named bridge. It overlooks the river which is probably hundreds of feet below and behind is the limitless ocean. Incredible view. Also because it’s an arch bridge, there’s no support columns under it and after the Thailand earthquake, there is still sometimes a feeling of unease.
Anyways, our legs were saved by the electric bike because we did not expect or plan for the trail to be over 100km. You see, we had originally not even planned for Sado Island because we were supposed to take a sightseeing train to Sakata, but we failed to rebook it thanks to their outdated and janky website. Thanks to the electric bikes (Rebecca says she might never go back to manual), we made it to the hotel before it got too dark. Also, the last third of the journey was fast because we were mostly downhill so we were zooming (reaping all the work we paid upfront for suffering through the hills). Our almost 10 hour journey came to an end and we feasted heartily before soaking in the onsen and knocking out (I’m super used to onsen life now).