Japan 8 Days Stay on Sado Island

After breakfast, you will get an orientation and introduction about the purpose of the environmental conservation program, local life and culture of Sado and the program logistics.

You can then join the volunteering activities, which might be preparing for a bamboo handcraft workshop with local school children. Bamboo is an extremly fast growing material that can replace plastic and other less sustainable materials in a variety of applications. A carpenter and artist specialising in bamboo will show you how to make objects such as toys, cutlery and music instruments from bamboo. You would then, together with other volunteers, teach this to local Japanese school children. Between April to June, the volunteer work can also include collecting bamboo shoots in forests that are used in primary school canteens for food.

Note: This is a sample itinerary. The activities are similar in nature, but are regularly changing depending on the season and local needs

After breakfast we drive to the rice fields of Iwakubi. In between the rice fields is a zone that is managed as a biotope. It is designed to be an ideal habitat for amphibians, fish and other small animals that feed the Crested Ibis. For this purpose, certain plant species are planted, and water levels are controlled, connected to the irrigation systems of the rice fields. Regularly grasses and bushes need to be cut, so that the birds have access to the water surfaces. In addition, the existing animal and plant species must be regularly monitored and their density determined.

As a volunteer, you will learn about the management of biotopes, the presence of which is, of course, also beneficial for many other species of animal and plants besides the Crested Ibis.

After you enjoyed your obento for lunch, the volunteering activity in Iwakubi continues. We might for instance help elderly farmers with maintenance of the historic irrigation system.

At around 5:30 pm you return to Koninji temple and have dinner at 7 pm. Please use the night to tidy up your room and tent since new participants might arrive the next day.

Note: The activities of the day are just an example and subject to change. Program activities are offered only from Monday to Friday. The weekends are usually off.

Chokokuji Temple was built in the year 807, which is the largest temple complex of Sado and known for its national cultural treasures such as statues from the 10th-12th centuries as well as its gigantic  trees, to which spiritual powers are attributed. As a volunteer, you join light maintenance and renovation work, light gardening work, and/or preparing activities for groups of children that are visiting the temple. In the afternoon the monk will guide you through the temple and tells some fascinating stories about its history and Buddhism in general. 

Note: The activities of the day are just an example and subject to change. Program activities are offered only from Monday to Friday. The weekends are usually off.

We drive to Sobama Beach, a beautiful wide beach not far from the temple. Our group is split into 2-3 smaller groups and we will collect plastic trash and lost fishing gear from the beach and the breakwater in front of the beach as a competition. Often children staying at a local campsite are joining this. The winning group wins a little prize. We will also learn about the problem of ocean and coastal pollution. During the summer months, we bake pizza in a stone oven on the beach and experience the beautiful sunset.

On the same day we also often visit the historic fishing village of Shukunegi which has remained mostly unchanged since Edo period.

Note: The activities of the day are just an example and subject to change. Program activities are offered only from Monday to Friday. The weekends are usually off.

We would listen to a small session exploring reasons how agriculture is the cause for loss of or can help to protect biodiversity. We would then drive to a farm that does both industrial farming and organic farming where we help the farmer, listen to the farmer’s experiences and compare the two approaches to farming. 

Similar sessions on environmental topics followed by a small research task or practical task, include the topics of climate change, coastal pollution, overfishing and others. 

Note: The activities of the day are just an example and subject to change. Program activities are offered only from Monday to Friday. The weekends are usually off.

The Crested Ibis (“Nipponia nippon”) is a bird with a size of 54-88 cm and a wingspan of 140 cm, which until the onset of industrial agriculture in the mid-20th century was relatively common in Korea, China, Japan and parts Russia, but is now threatened with extinction by losing its habitats. In 2002 there were only around 150 Nippon Ibises left worldwide. In Japan, the species was extinct in the wild in 2003.

As a result, the government of Japan, in cooperation with the Chinese government, launched an internationally recognized reintroduction program on Sado Island, where Crested Ibises from China were bred in captivity and released since 2008. The first hatchings in the wild were observed in 2012. Today there are again around 440 ibises on Sado Island, some of which were even spotted on the neighboring main island of Honshu.

We will visit the Rehabilitation Center for the Crested Ibis and learn about the program.

Essential for the survival of birds in the wild are the presence of suitable habitats. This includes traditional rice farming methods and the design of paddy fields including zones where the birds can feed throughout the year, as well as biotopes optimised as feeding and breeding grounds for the ibis.

The inclusion of Sado rice farmers and the promotion of traditionally grown, high-quality organic rice from Sado Island have been crucial to the success of the reintroduction program. We work with the rice farming community of Ogura. The terraced rice fields were built on steep slopes in the 17th century and can therefore only be worked by hand or with small hand-held machines, which makes their operation not commercially profitable. They are only maintained to prevent landslides and as a food source for the Crested Ibis. Rice is planted in April and harvested in October. During other months, the irrigation system, which includes a canal bringing water from a 17th-century water reservoir to the rice fields, needs to be checked and repaired. The edges of the paddy fields need to be fortified regularly with certain soils to keep the water on the fields.

Note: The activities of the day are just an example and subject to change. Program activities are offered only from Monday to Friday. The weekends are usually off.