Sado

Sado is a large island in the Sea of Japan off Niigata Prefecture, shaped like a butterfly and ringed by rugged coast. For centuries it was Japan's island of exile for out-of-favor nobles, then a gold rush colony, and both histories still shape its temples and its performing arts.

Tour the tunnels of the old Sado gold mine, then look for the crested ibis, reintroduced to the island's rice terraces after vanishing from Japan's wild. In Ogi, women row visitors around the harbor in round wooden tub boats once used for gathering shellfish.

The taiko group Kodo is based here and hosts its Earth Celebration festival each August, when ferries from Niigata fill fast. Car ferries and jetfoils make the crossing year-round, and a rental car suits the island's scale. Summer is the season; winter seas turn the island inward.