KIOC JUNE NEWSLETTER 2004
Contents
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Greeting
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Events in June
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Goodbye Lars
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Monthly Meeting
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Event Reviews
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Upcoming events
Hello everyone, or ‘howeeya’ as we say in Ireland.
Before I continue, let me just say ‘YAY!’. July has finally arrived. Goodbye tsuyu, hello summer!
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Events in June
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Despite the heavy rainfall and several typhoon warnings, we still managed to get out and about in June. First up, there were not one, but two events held in Kobe on June 5th. Yoshimi Suzuki organized a hike up Maya-san, while Dean Johansson lead a cycle up Rokko-san. Once again, Chinatsu and Rolfs best laid plans were foiled by the weather, meaning that their Kodomo no Mori mountain bike ride had to be postponed until July 10th. (Still time to sign up, kids!). Lars organized a hike around the Minoo-no-Take Falls (you can read about that further on in this issue). Jacquelyn arranged a bike ride in Nara for beginners and intermediate riders, which took a fantastic route through the mountains and picturesque countryside. Erics hike in the Konan Alps was postponed due to adverse weather conditions, and instead will take place in July. Lars’ Shodoshima had to be rescheduled once again (three times!) because of the weather, but it finally came together in the first week of July. Unfortunately, he ended up going alone, but the scenery was spectacular nonetheless.
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Goodbye Lars!
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By now, I’m sure you are all aware that Lars is leaving the club (and Japan) at the end of July. He is returning to Denmark in order to attend university. We will all be very sad to see him go. He has given so much of himself and his free time to the club since he joined little more than a year ago. I want to take this opportunity to thank him for all that he has brought to the club. You been so much fun to have around, Lars. We’ll miss you loads! Best of luck with your studies. Hopefully we’ll get to see you again during summer vacation!
This means the position of club president is wide open. Who would YOU like to see in this position? It’s your club, after all. Come along to the next meeting and let us hear your opinion. We’d love to hear what you think about the Lars’ successor!
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Swimming Holes in Kansai
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On the subject of Julys monthly meeting, we’ve decided to give it a summery theme. We’re asking each IOC member to participate in the meeting by doing their own mini-presentation about their favorite swimming hole in Kansai. Your swimming hole could be a river, a lake, or even your local swimming pool. We’re asking each of you to choose one place (or two), present some information about it, talk about why it’s a special place for you, bring some photos of it (if you can), and show us on a map how to get there. (We will bring the maps!)
After the meeting, there will be the customary food and drink outing somewhere in Umeda. It should be a great night!
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Maya-san Review by Yoshimi
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Maya-san is the next mountain of Rokko-san. Although Rokko-san
is higher than Maya-san, I think Maya-sam exceeds it in terms of view.
Ten IOC members gathered at Hankyu Oji-koen station and started
climbing up Maya-san. The path to the top was not so hard but the
weather was very hot so some members had a tough time to get the
top.
From the top we enjoyed a great view of Hanshin-area. We even
could see the Kansai air port. For while we enjoyed the good
view and had a relaxing time.
After the hike some hikers went to a sento to wash off the sweat
and afterwards to a Yakitori-bar. It is a very good bar, not only was the
food nice but also reasonably priced. We drank beer like a fish!
(I was one of the happy hikers who joined Yoshimi for the Maya-san event. It was an absolutely fantastic day! We were all in great spirits and there were a lot of jokes and laughter flying around as we made our way up the mountain in the June heat. The trek up and down was mostly under the shade of leafy green trees, which made things quite comfortable and great conversation was had throughout the whole day. I hear the trip to the Yakitori bar was also a lot of fun, isn’t that right Toshi? ;)
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Minoo-no-taki Falls, 19th of July 2004 by Lars
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In an attempt to focus more on the "local scenery", Lars lead his very first
hiking event up to the Minoo-no-taki Falls, joined by Yoshimi and Jasmine.
To make it more challenging for himself, he rode his bike from Nishinomiya
to the meeting place, getting a bit lost near Minoo and thus arrived late - always
makes the best start for any event :(
We set out from the station, and took a detour into the mountains heading
for Satsukiyama. This forest path turned out to be a very cool path up a
tiny stream and along a ridge. We even caught a glimpse of a "wild" monkey.
As some of the trails had been closed from the public in an attempt to bring
the monkeys back to their natural surroundings, we headed for the falls
themselves and had our lunch sitting on rocks in the river, overlooking the
river and waterfall basin.
From here, we headed out towards Katsuoji temple and the mere 3.5km walk...
Doing yet another detour up the mountain following a "nature study route",
we ended up going quite a bit further than the 3.5km originally planned. At the visitor center, after admiring the bugs collection, we decided to head back and call it a day...
All in all, it was about 5 hours of hiking, and 80km bike riding - a good workout for sure.
Images can be found at http://IOCkansai.com/article/minoo_190604/
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Upcoming Events
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Now that the fine weather has returned, the IOC event calendar is back on track. Saturday the 10th sees Chinatus rescheduled mountain bike and barbeque event at Kodomo no Mori, and the July Monthly Meeting in the evening. Please bring along a picture of your favorite swimming spot in Kansai!
Junko is organizing a trip to Universal Studios Japan, which should definitely be a lot of fun. Eircs rescheduled Konan Alps hike also takes place on the same day.
July 24th sees the IOC Annual Summer Beer Party!!!! It takes place at the Shinzen-kaku Chinese Beer Garden. This is guaranteed to be the event of the summer. Join up now!
Check http://IOCkansai.com/event/month/2004_7/ for more details on all these events.
Over and out,
Claire
