IOC kansai NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 2005

CONTENTS

1. Greetings
2. Goodbye Ivan
3. March Elections
4. January Events
• New Years Day Hike by Shinobu
• New Years Nabe Party by Tetsuya
• Kobe Hike by Yoshimi S
• Showshoe Hike by Chris
5. Letter from Eric Skulstad
   
6. February Events
7. The History and Culture of Nabe by Tetsuya
   

Samuiiiiiiiii!

Goodbye January, hello February! Hopefully now we’ll begin to see an end to the sub zero temperatures of mid winter. Spring is on the horizon. And what does this mean for the IOC? Wonderful weather for outdoor activities, that’s what!

All activities are planned and organized by our members, and without this, our club simply would not exist. We really hope that all you guys can help put something back into the club, perhaps by leading a hiking, biking, camping, dragonboat racing, BBQ party, snowshoe hiking, or maybe a pub/izakaya type event! A hike *to* the pub, even! (Where can I sign up for that!).  If you have an idea for an event, please email our President, Ivan Breen ( president@IOCkansai.com ) and he’ll help you get your idea off the ground. Alternatively, if you’d like to lead an event, but can’t think of anything to do, contact Ivan anyway, and he’ll be happy to come up with some suggestions!

GOODBYE IVAN

Ivan is leaving!

“Finally, I Am Leaving Japan This February!!! Yes, the rumor is true.  My time is up in Japan!  I’ve been here for two years and wow has the time flown by!  It’s been a great experience, but it’s time for me to move on.  I have the IOC to thank for much of the wonderful time I’ve had here.  Thanks everyone for your friendship and companionship.  I’m so happy to have shared so many amazing experiences with you.  Without all of you, I couldn’t have had such a great time here.  I’m sad to leave, but it’s time for me to move on although something tells me that I’ll be visiting here from time to time in the future!”

The February meeting will be Ivan’s last meeting as IOC President. Ivan, we are all very sad to see you go. You have been a wonderful member of the IOC club, always with a laugh and a joke to share with all. Your tireless work on the committee was appreciated by everyone!

Not only did he generously volunteer his time for one position, after the swift and unexpected departure of our last president in July, he undertook TWO positions! President *and* Activities Coordinator. He did a fantastic job at both. Go Ivan!!!

His Sayonara Party will be held after the February 5^th meeting, where you’ll all get a chance to say goodbyes over beer and give him the send off he deserves.

We’ll miss you Ivan! Good luck in the future, and we all hope to see you back here really soon!

ELECTIONS

Our meeting on March 12^th is a very important meeting for the club. In fact, it’s probably the most important meeting of the year. March is election time!!!  We will be voting for a whole new committee to take over for the 2005-2006 term.  Have someone in mind you’d like to nominate?  Then please let us know ahead of time, and we can put them on the ballot.  Also, if you’d like to be on the committee this year, by all means, please volunteer!  Remember, the club can’t run itself!  WE NEED YOU TO VOLUNTEER TO BE ON THE COMMITTEE!  Due to the important nature of the elections, we hope to have a 100% turn out for the March meeting.  Of course, we will also have the usual update on club events and issues, and we will all be going out afterwards for the usual food and drinks! Hope to see you all there.

Ivan already emailed your all with the committee positions and duties, but I’ll include it here again just to refresh your memories. J

Here are the positions we are thinking about making for the next term.  If you have an idea to combine any of these or share the duties with another person, let us know, and we’ll see what we can work out.

Tentative Committee Positions and Job Descriptions...

President

(You get to boss people around!) 

Activities Coordinator

(You get to know about the new events and sign up for them before anyone else can!  Ha, ha!)

Special Events Coordinator

(Like to party?  Then why not throw a party!)

Treasurer

(Hey!  You get to go shopping with our money!)

Secretary

(You can keep track of all of our members and sign up new ones! Now that sounds exciting, doesn't it?)

Newsletter Editor

(Write your own newsletter, or get others to do it for you, it’s all up to you!)

Webmaster

(Win the respect and adoration of your peers simply by using internet super powers to keep the website up and running!)

If you are interested (and we know you are!), email Ivan directly at <ifrank28@yahoo.com>. 

The IOC committee is a great way to meet new people, have fun organizing events,

and give back to a club that has given so much to you.  We’re looking forward to

hearing from you soon!   

JANUARY EVENTS

IOC members are always up for a good time, and so we didn’t let the cold of January stop us from enjoying the out doors.  Amazingly enough, we have reviews of EVERY activity which took place in January. Hurray! Many many thanks go to Shinobu (and Miyuki) for writing about Yoshimi's New Years Day hike. Tetsuya  wrote about the New Years nabe party and also wrote about the origins and popularity of Naba, for all our enjoyment. Thank you Tetsuya! Yoshimi S wrote about the Kobe hike on January 29th and Chris shared his experiences with us all about the Snowshoe Trip to  Shiga Prefecture. Thank you everyone for taking the time to do this.  We all really appreciate it.

 NEW YEARS ROKKO HIKE by Shinobu

Last year was the first time that I could take a day-off on New Year's Eve to spend time with my parents and to watch 'NHK Kohaku Utagassen' since I started working in my current office.  My favourite Korean actor was on the stage of NHK that night. It made me happy. But spending time with parents made me tired soon, then I made up my mind to go back to my small apartment in Rokko, and to sign up for Yoshimi's New Year hike.

Since last year, everywhere in the world has had a weird weather. Here in Kansai, we had a record-warm December. But finally it got cold the last day of 2004. I saw the snow on the top of Mt. Rokko on New Year's Day. Luckily, the hiking day was sunny and warm. Yoshimi, Miyuki, Rie, Kei, Kevin, Rica, and I hiked up in great weather conditions. The sky was so clear that we could even see Kansai Airport on the mountain. We had lunch by the lake, and almost had a wild pig attack there. The wild pig must have liked Yoshimi's Curry Udon.

As usual, Yoshimi wanted to bring us to his favourite Yakitori Restaurant after the hike. Unsurprisingly, the place was closed since all beer-drinking salary men have to be home on the three-day New Year's holidays. So I invited the IOC heavy drinkers to my place, and we had the beer and wine party to celebrate the New Year.

From Miyuki:

”We had wonderful time both at Mt.Rokko and Shinobu’s place.
Here are my pictures of Yoshimi's Curry Udon,Shinobu’s instant
Yakisoba and the frozen lake.”

NEW YEARS NABE PARTY, JANUARY 22 by Tetsuya Inaoka

Forty-two members threw the New Year party, the very first IOC activity in this year, in Myokensan cooking center located in the middle of Mt. Myoken in Hyogo prefecture.  This BBQ center is popular in families through spring to fall, but when we had the party, fortunately, we were the only group in there. It was nice to have a party on a sunny winter day at a quiet place in the middle of mountain, wasn’t it?

Other members were enjoying the hike on the way to this place, but I took a cable car as I was lazy to hike up the mountain. When I reached the cooking center around noon, I saw no IOC members other than Craig, who was an IOC committee member in the past. He lived in Japan for four years and came back in Australia four years ago. This was his very first time to visit Japan after he felt. It was very nice to see a friend with whom　I enjoyed outdoor activities after a long time. I enjoyed the conversation with him with shipping beer while we were waiting for other members’ arrival. I was very impressed what he said in the conversation, "Living in Japan is one of the greatest experiences in my life. I am very proud of making the right decision of coming to Japan and joining IOC." One thing which makes IOC as an attractive club is that we can meet people from all over the world. It is fun and eye-opening to look at Japanese culture from outside with the help of non-Japanese members. Moreover, even after they leave for their home countries, we can keep in touch with them and continue being friends. I believe this world-wild friendship is life-time fortune for us, IOC members.

Other members came to the center around 1 p.m. I was starving! It’s time to start the kamo nabe party! With the help of　the fire starter team including Kaori, Kei, and Koji, we were able to start fires smoothly…relatively. After warming up our bodies from inside with the nabe, we enjoyed conversation about the trips in Charismas/New Year vacation, new outdoor activity plans, New Years wishes, etc. In addition to the nabe, we enjoyed Belgian beer from Damien, champagne from Minhao, and rice cakes from Toshi. I appreciate their thoughtfulness of bringing this extra stuff. Kei got around to take short farewell messages to Ivan from all of the members.  These messages will be a great present for him.
 

It was true that time flies when you're having fun. We had to finish the party around 4 p.m. so that we could catch the last cable car leaving for the foot of the mountain. I believe all of us enjoyed this party very much to kick out IOC activities in this year.
 

Shinobu, thank you for leading the wonderful party.
 

Tetsuya kindly did a lot of research to give us a fascinating insight into the culture of Nabe. You will find all the information at the end of this newsletter. I really enjoyed learning more about one of my favourite Japanese dishes. It was incredibly interesting. Thank you Tetsuya!

KOBE HIKE, SATURDAY JANUARY 29, by Yoshimi S

On the incredibly warm Saturday for the end of January, 6 hikers (Tom, Peter, Yukie, Guelliemo, Jeremy and Yoshimi) got together at Hiyodorigoe station on the Kobe Dentetsu. Jeremy appeared with very unique shoes. He broke his big toe while at his Karate practice last month, thus his toe was in a plaster. It had made his foot difficult to fit his shoe. The solution was a shoe with a big hole at the toe! He cut his right shoe's toe. So we could see his toe in a white sock through the hole. It made me laugh all the way during the hike.

From the station we started to walk up to the Kikusui-yama. It seemed all members were in good shape.  Everyone easily passed the steep slope up to the mountain. On the top we had a lunch and enjoy a chat in a very beautiful and warm weather. After that we passed Nabebuta-yama, Dairyuji temple, Ichigahara and Nunobiki water fall.
And finally we reached Shin Kobe station. It was very relaxing Saturday. I really enjoyed it.

SNOWSHOE TRIP TO MOUNT HIRA IN SHIGA PREFECTURE, SUNDAY JAN 30, by Chris

The conditions for snowshoeing yesterday were just perfect - cold, clear weather and deep, fresh, crisp powder snow. We started in sunshine from Biwako valley ski resort with beautiful views across Lake Biwa. Once down into the woods we found the trail pretty well-marked and easy to follow. For most of the way we were opening the trail; nobody had been through before us. Occasionally we would have difficulty finding the next trail mark - some red tape on a tree - but after fanning out in ever-increasing circles we'd soon pick it up again. We only got lost once, and luckily Estella's sense of direction and Rolf's compass got us back on track before we'd gone too far out of our way. The weather by this time had closed in, with clouds scudding over us in the wind almost close enough to touch. There were some pretty steep ups and downs in places, but in the fresh snow it was lots of fun scrambling about. From Arakawa pass the trail down into the valley was a switchback through the cedar forest and easy to follow. We came out at the bottom just as evening was approaching, and stopped in an old temple for a rest and some hot mulled wine which Rolf kindly provided. Okonomiyaki in Kyoto finished off a great Sunday, although I must admit my leg muscles are complaining a bit today!

A Lesson Learned by Eric Skulstad

So there I am , lying in a hammock, munching on fresh mango and sipping ice tea (Thai style) enjoying the last few days of my holiday.  It's mid afternoon on a typically hot day (+30 C) here in Trang where you do you best to minimize your movements when the sun is at it's peak for fear of over exerting yourself.  With that in mind, I summoned a Hercules type effort to reposition myself in my hammock :)  In the process of turning myself over, from out of nowhere I hear a loud crash and see this object fall from the heavens.

In a flash I thought . another tsunami or perhaps a part of a satellite, or maybe even a meteor?  But then the science fiction freak in me returned to reality.  It was just a coconut falling.

You are probably wondering just where I am going with this story so I will get to the point.  Forget the notion that coconut is shredded and comes in a bag at your local supermarket.  For anyone who hasn't seen a real live wild coconut they are a tad smaller
than a 10 pin bowling ball, are solid like a sack of marbles and weigh the same as a small to medium size watermelon. And when the fall from a height of a 4 storey building they can pack quite a punch.

Looking around I quickly realized that I was surrounded by 20 meter high coconut trees loaded to the brim with coconuts and capable of dropping a coconut on me at anytime. Fortunately for me I was laying in the shade under a roof but after some observation I
realized that they had me trapped.  I would eventually have to wander out there and make my way through a coconut tree minefield in order to catch my shuttle back to the city.

When the time came to leave the safe confines of my hammock I summoned all my courage and cautiously proceeded to my pick up point; all the while keeping my eyes cast skyward in search of an ambush.  Luckily for me I had a local guide with me who was able to help us navigate through the minefield without incident.  Along the way, she told me that although there had been injuries, in the history of the village no one had ever been killed by a falling coconut.  I welcomed that bit of encouraging news but I kept alert
because there is always a first time for everything, and this was one time I didn't feel like being first. Along the way I noticed that none of the locals parked their cars or motorbikes near the coconut trees.  I asked our guide about this and she said that sometimes if the coconuts aren't successful at hitting any human targets that they will take out their frustrations and aim for anything in their immediate area whether it be dogs, chickens or vehicles. She also told me that after suffering broken windshields, dents and other types of damage that the locals have learned to give the coconut trees a wide berth when it came to parking.

So the moral of the story is the next time you are in paradise surrounded by sun, sand and coconut trees you might want to watch where you are going . not just because of doggy poop, but also for falling coconuts.

Eric
:)

FEBRUARY EVENTS

At the time of writing, we only have one event lined up for February. Koji is leading a big snowshoe trip to Nagano from February 18^th to the 20^th. It looks like a fantastic trip! More details can be found here .

Hopefully, more of you will decide to lead an event this month too!

FUN FACTS ABOUT NABE by Tetsuya

Q1. When did Japanese start eating nabe in their history?

Unglazed nabe pots were used in cooking in Yayoi Period (around BC 3000).  Ion nabe pots were in use in Heian Period (8–12 century).  However, the size of these nabe pots was large, and they were merely used as cookware in a kitchen.

The eating style of nabe, picking up ingredients from the pot while it is cooking, was established after the invention of a portable clay cooking stove (Shitirin) in the late Edo Period (around 1800). This handy stove and a small-sized nabe pot were used to serve boiled bean curd (yudoufu) and loach-boiled-in-pan dish (yanagawa nabe) at a table. As people had no habit of eating meat at the time, the ingredients for nabe were limited to vegetables and fish.  In the end of Edo Period (around 1850), Japanese medical doctors in Western learning (rangakui) introduced the habit of eating meat (hose, deer, and wild swine) in nabe. However, still only a limited number of people began to eat with nabe at this time.
 

When the Meiji Period started in 1868, eating beef in nabe (gyunabe or sukiyaki) was a symbol of cultural enlightenment and the modernization of Japanese culture (bunmeikaika). Eating sukiyaki became all the rage and popular among Japanese. Its inherent property, easy-to-cook and tolerance of accepting many kinds of ingredients and modification of seasoning, helped to invent a wide variety of nabes and made them the most popular meals in Japan.

Q2. How many people eat nabe in the world?

The popularity of Nabe is closely related to our meal-eating styles. Chopsticks are ideal tools for the nabe eating style, which people do bycircling round a pot and pick up cooking ingredients from it by themselves. About 44 per cent of the world wide population, mainly in Hinduism and Islamism people living in Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa, uses their left bare hands for eating meals. Their eating style does not accept Nabe. The remaining population, 28 per cent each, uses either chopsticks or cutlery (knife and fork). Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese use chopsticks; European, American, and Russian use cutlery.  Nabe is very popular only in Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam among these "eating with chopsticks countries." Assuming the world wide population is six billion, only 1.7 billion people (three per cent of the population) have the habit of eating nabe.

(In addition to these countries, Taisuki, Thai-style sukiyaki, is becoming popular in Thailand. Thai people who once lived in Japan introduced sukiyaki in their home country with changing it slightly to suit the Thai style of cooking.)

International Outdoor Club - Kansai