Hen weekend on Sado Island Part 2: Time is toki

16 Aug

Damn, those T-shirts just make me wanna laugh! They were so fabulous and we were totally rockin’ them on Sado Island.

Like all places in Japan, there is something or some food that is unique to the area (can be anything from apples to wasabi to animals) and Sado Island’s mascot is the rare toki bird that is part of the ibis species.

I wish I could show you a photo of a real toki but they were hidden away from noise and prying human eyes because they are an endangered species — seen and treated much like pandas. Tokis have trouble conceiving and have Chinese names like Yan Yan and Ying Ying. Apprently, tokis are also exchanged as diplomatic gifts between Japan and China.

If you’ve travelled around Japan abit, you would notice that a whole industry of tourist souvenirs will be built around the said mascot, and my oh my, were there tons of toki things.

FYI, toki also means time in Japanese. So time is toki…get it, get it? *Groan*…

Don’t worry I didn’t buy any of this tourist crap. But I did buy this: Sado Island 100 per cent pure sea salt.

I love making food and am a bit of a health freak so good unrefined salt would tickle my culinary geek bone. There were kelp and ume (sour plum) flavoured salt — probably great for accompanying tempura — but they were a bit too Japanese for what I cook at home.

Our trip was very well-planned and mapped out almost to the hour but the salt shop was something we stumbled upon.