Sugari – The little town off Owase

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Sugari is one of a small town off Owase. Its population stands at less than 200 with less than a handful of children. Most people are aged 60 and above and there are about 280 houses where a quarter are not occupied. Sad reality of an aging population.

Because of the people love for nature, they refuse to build roads as there equates to killing of trees. Hence, the fastest way to access there is by a 20mins ferry from Owase.

The Tan Tans, together with their friend in Owase, decided to pay Sugari a visit.

  Location of Sugari
Map picture

 

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Our ride to Sugari, notice the close resemblance of their calender to our traditional chinese calender.

 

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In Owase, everyone’s hobby is … well, you guess it. Fishing!

 

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Some sights of Sugari

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Right: We noticed a lot of households with this handprint on it. Upon query, we were told that only when a person reaches the age of 88, will they be allow to put this on their door. Some charm for good luck I guess.

Left: Rare sight of a kid playing with her grandfather as children is a rare sight in Sugari.

 

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It seems like there might be more dogs than kids in Sugari.

 

But I would say that the people in the Inaka (countryside) are really friendly and warm. We met this uncle who hikes everyday and invites us to go with him. The sights are awesome and the company great!

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Wonderful sights!!

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Oh, these are deer markings. A pity we couldn’t catch the animal in actions otherwise I will have fresh venison to eat… hee hee.

 

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The kind uncle invited us to his house which is over a hundred years old.

 

Upon departing from the kind uncle’s place, the Tan Tans and their friend met an abbot of Sugari temple who is 78 and so genki! He climbs flight of stairs to his temple more than once daily and we panted as we ascend it. Wow! The abbot shows us lots of photos and told us that Sugari used to be full of activities and he hopes more people will visit Sugari in the future.

We were also told that there is also an interesting festival in Sugari in early Feb where hopes are written on a stone and these stones will be dropped into the seabed after prayers. Reporters from as far as France came to cover the story.

The abbot also treated us to some very delicious homemade soba.

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