Travel To Itoigawa, Japan The Jade Coast & Japanese Benitoite!

Part 1 - Getting There.

(Mt. Fuji from the train)

I spent Father’s Day weekend last year, on the West Coast of Japan in Itoigawa. It’s Unesco registered Geopark due to it’s geology and is famous for it’s Jade (Jadeite), ヒスイ (he-sue-ee) littered beaches and rivers. However, it holds a much more precious gemstone in it’s mountains, Benitoite, the ultra rare state gemstone of California. I’ll get to that later.

I took an express train on the Chuo line from Hachioji to Itoigawa which was about ¥4,000 ($40) cheaper than the Shinkansen. It adds about 2 hours to your journey, but that was great time spent working on music and taking in the beautiful scenes of the Japan Alps.

Upon arriving at Itoigawa station’s west exit there is a visitor’s center that I encourage everyone to visit. Inside there are actual boulders of Jade to look at and touch so you can familiarize yourself with the precious stone. It’s a very difficult stone to identify in the rough and there are several look a likes that can easily fool the ametuer, so it’s a good idea to stop here first, touch, look, ask questions, etc. before heading to the beach. The gift shop sells rough and cut material that also comes in handy to help identify it in the field.

(Jadeite boulders in the visitor's center)

After a few minutes of browsing I left the center and walked the two blocks to the beach anxious to start hunting. As soon as I hit the beach I was taken back by how much Nephrite (Jade), Agate, Mariposite aka Kitsune Ishii and other green stones there were. Nephrite is another type of Jade, but a totally different mineral, usually darker green to black in color. In the two hours of collecting I picked up about 10 kilos worth of fist sized and smaller material. Unfortunately I would find out 99% of it was not Jade.

(A fantastic mariposite aka kitsune ishii)

Tons of Mariposite, like the specimen above, litter the beaches and are often confused with jade.

My Air BnB host, Toshio-san, was the ideal host. Without asking he took me to several beaches, lunch, the Fossa Magna museum and to see the hotaru, fireflies at night. He is an old surfer so he speaks English and loves to chat with foreigners. He's also knowledgable about Jadeite and often has collectors from all over Japan stay at his place. His accommodations can be found on Airbnb and are just across the coast highway from one of the collecting beaches. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13244563?location=Itoigawa%2C%20Niigata%20Prefecture%2C%20Japan&s=UbLlZHxx

(Toshio-san's place & his board shop Voltage)

After dropping my bags off it was back to the beach for another hour of hunting then across the street to 7-11 for dinner. The convenience stores in Japan have almost replaced all small markets and actually offer good food compared to American convenience stores. You can get a plethora of meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner that are made fresh each day by their suppliers. I went back to my room, downed a few sapporo's and enjoyed the sunset.

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To be continued tomorrow. Day 2 the good stuff.