IOC NEWSLETTER - May 2004
Index
- Introduction
- Event Reviews
- Lars verses Rokkosan
- Yoshino - Koyasan cycle trip
- Kojis camping Trip
- Upcoming Events
Introduction
Hello everyone and welcome to June!Before we check out the great events planned for this month, lets take a few moments to look back at what May had to offer.
May offered us a lot of rain. An awful lot of rain, actually. This unfortunately led to several events being cancelled. However, the bad weather didn't conquer all, and I think we can safely say that May was another good month for IOC.
Last month kicked off with the usual meeting, where attendance was suspiciously high. Nothing to do with the beer party afterwards, I'm sure! Rolf gave a really great presentation entitled "An Introduction to Mountain Biking". He explained what to look for in a bike, along with describing appropriate clothing for cycling and also discussed safety issues. I, for one, gained a lot from his talk and hope to put it in to practice in August.
Rolf wasn't the only one to arrive at the meeting with a laptop. Lars brought his brand spanking new laptop along to demonstrate the (fabulous!) new webpage. The general consensus was "wooo, pretty". About the webpage, not the laptop. *cough*
After the meeting, everyone headed straight to Yodoyabashi for a Belgian Beer Party, organized by Yugo. By all accounts it was great fun, with lots of laughing and lots of strange but yummy beer.
May seemed to be Chinatsu and Rolf versus The Weather. They put a lot of effort and thought into organizing some great events. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas. On May 9th, they organized a beginners bike ride in Nara. This had to be cancelled due rain. They also organised what promised to be an excellent event, with something for everyone. The Happy Hike and Happy Bike event was to take place in the Kyoto Nishiyama area. As if that wasn't enough, it finished off with a barbeque and their own house, with (of course!) lots of beer and lots of delicious food. Unfortunately, once again, the rain had other ideas.
Jacquelyn led a cycling and camping trip to Yoshino-Koyasan on May 22-23. Despite a particularly difficult hill, all agreed that it was a thoroughly enjoyable event. See Lars' account of it later in this newsletter.
Koji organized a two day camping and hiking trip to Fugen-dake in Nara on May 29-30. This was a great event, and was booked out very quickly.
On the 29th, Lars also led an easy cycle along the Mukugawa and Shukugawa rivers, ending up at a secluded beach. He ended up doing this solo, but it was a worthwhile cycle nonetheless. It's easy to forget what spectacular scenery we have in our own back yard. We don't always need to travel far away to appreciate how beautiful Japan is.
Event Reviews
In each newsletter we try to include reviews of the previous months events. This has several purposes. Firstly, we hope it helps keep members up to date with what's happening in the club. It may also inspire people to participate in a different types of events. It may even give ideas to those thinking of planning their own even!If you participate in an IOC even, we would really love to hear about it. Even a few sentences about what you did and what you saw would be great. If you wish to submit and event review, please email it to newsletter@IOCkansai.com. All our members would really appreciate it!
Lars Riding Rokkosan
Last week, Lars took on his nemesis. It was time for another attempt at conquering the Rokko-range. Earlier efforts had resulted in a broken bike (meaning 100.000yen out the window!), sudden changed weather and other "fun" events. Setting out from the Nishinomiya area, there are three ways to climb up to Rokko; one along the Shukugawa Oasisroad up to the route 82. Another up towards Koyoen, over Kabutoyama (309m) or from Takarazuka, along a tiny river riding route 16, where some of the way is actually inside a "cage" protecting from being hit by wild golf balls. All three paths gather at the route 16, climbing a long tough road, with 10-16% incline. The road leads up to an approximate altitude of 885 meters.A great place to rest, is at the "Rokko Garden Terrace", from where there is an excellent view over the Hanshin coastal area. From here, there again is options to head towards Arima and the famous hot springs, the steep and thus very fast descent towards Kobe again via the Rokko-Omote driveway towards the Hankyu Rokkomichi station. Finally, riding along the Rokko range until the signal before crossing the busy route 428, turn left and ride a nice way down towards the Shin-Kobe station, where you can be lucky and catch a glimpse of the Shinkansen trains.
It is worth noting that the best time to ride Rokkosan "on-road" is to do so on a weekday, because the roads are mostly deserted.
Yoshino - Koyasan cycle trip on 22nd and 23rd of May
This time, Jacquelyn truly served us a treat ! After a long period of rain and cancelled events, she cooked up an amazing two day ride, including the now almost mandatory BBQ party. She promised us a "killer climb", but I'm unsure many of us thought she was a girl of her word, but trust me - when she does say such it's worth listening to !We set out heading up to ever beautiful Yoshino, where we enjoyed our lunch overlooking the awesome scenery. The route brought us over several inclines, where in the rear the discussion often went, if "this" was the killer climb, or only a warm-up. We soon found out, it was all only warming up. The weather forecast warned of a 0-10% chance of rain - so we did hit some rain, not enough to ruin our day though - and which made the onsen all that much enjoyable.
The descent from Koyasan was truly amazing - because of the massive amount of rain recently, the river was full of water (some places actually flooding the road itself). This gave us numerous views, waterfalls, rapids, fresh greenery etc., which was really refreshing.
If you ever get the chance, don't hesitate to go to this area - even the one "killerclimb" - it's all worth the sweat. This is truly an awesome area !
Pictures from the trip can be found at http://IOCkansai.com/article/koyasan_220504/
Upcoming June Events
There have already been some excellent events this month, and it's only the beginning of June! Dean led a bike ride up Rokkosan on June 5th and Yoshimi led a really fun hike up Mayasan in Kobe. Watch out for a review in the next issue. Once again Rolf and Chinatsus great event had to be rescheduled due to rain. The beginners mountain bike workshop, due to have been held on June 6th has now been postponed until July 10th. It is well worth attending if you are interested in learning more about mountain biking. Even if you don't have a bike, sign up! There are some mountain bikes that can be borrowed for the day. More information is available on the website.The monthly meeting on June 12th will be a short one. It was originally planned to hold the meeting at the Shodoshima event, but this had to be rescheduled due to the arrival of a typhoon. Instead, the meeting will end at 6:30pm and we'll all head over to the Piccadilly Cinema in Umeda to see Troy. Needless to say, there'll be some sort of beer drinking afterwards!
Our sister club, Tokyo IAC, is holding an even in Kansai on June 9-12. It takes place in Wakayama-ken and consists of 3 days of hiking.
Jacquelyn has organized a beginners and intermediate cycling even in Nara on June 20th.
Eric is leading a one day hike to the Konan Alps in Shiga, also on June 20th.
The Shodoshima Camping event on Shikoku has been rescheduled to June 26-27th. All old reservations have been cancelled so if you still intend to go, please email Lars ( lars.jensen@kioc.org ).
/ Claire
