Ren's Footprints

In February 2003 I returned home from my first ten months in Japan. At that time I lived in Niigata. That small city seemed like a crowded metropolis at the time, but after living in Tokyo I realized that it is a pleasant, quiet place.
I took an economy train through the night to get there so when I arrived it was still very early morning. The first thing I did was go to the port and take off to Sado (see map above) via ferry. The weather was great that day so I wanted to spend it hiking.

This building was being built when I was living there



More morning shots



Arriving at the small port city in Sado

I jumped on a public bus and took off to the north end of the island. It was an hour ride but the beauty of the scenery made it worth it.

These two rocks are called "the turtles"



My goal of the day was to climb this little mountain



On the way up

I spent that night at a friend's house, even though she was gone away at school in Kyoto. I had met her family in 2002 and they wanted me to visit.
I spent the rest of my time visiting old friends from my days as a high school exchange student there. Three friends of mine are already married which totally shocked me. Here in Tokyo nobody young seems to be married. I guess that people in the country get married quite young in the USA too.

One of my friends invited me have dinner with a bunch of other random people and here is the one picture from that night.

Going back to Niigata I also got to see my hostfamily for the first time as someone who can speak Japanese. It was very difficult not speaking much of their language and living with them for almost a year. It turns out, though, that I fully understood their charaters before finally having real conversation with them last week. They are quiet, simple people, but were just as generous to me this time as they were in 2002/3.

Anyone look at the news headlines these days? Americans dead in storms, cyclone devistates Myanmar, earthquakes killing thousands... Please spare me mother earth!