Today HAJET Outreach Project in association with Groove Cycles held its third Niseko/Kutchan BBQ Bike Ride Bonanza! The event raised 80,000 yen for the people of Iwate prefecture still living in relief shelters.
(click on the images to view them at a larger sizes)
Each participant paid 3,000 yen which included a BBQ after the ride with the remainder of the cash going to the relief fund.
The group of 20 + riders set off from Hirafu just after 10 and cruised up past Hanazono to the Weiss Hotel about 14km’s away.
The support team were EVERYWHERE ! cheers
The return leg of the ride back to Hirafu was a bit easier – mainly downhill.
Alistair really out did himself by garnering the support of some friends to make the event happen, motivating some participants and the end of the day turning on a treat of an event for a great cause …oh’ and the food was delicious.
Way to go !!!
Tagged as:
cycling,
hanazono,
Hirafu,
Hokkaido,
Japan,
Kutchan,
mtb,
people,
Photography,
spring
The weather is finally starting to improve here in Hokkaido and with the warmer temperatures early morning road cycling is on.
Went for a ride last Sunday with a cool group – although everyone was in much better condition than me – Bevan, Vanessa and Jess being as fit as serious tri-athletes, and Scott and Paul both experienced road cyclists.
(click on the images to view them at a larger sizes)
The ride was basically a 45 km “cruise” to Toyako south from Hirafu.
Bevan and Vanessa then locked up there bikes changed cloths and joined in the marathon fun…no big deal.
Lots of runners…..little did we know.
Unfortunately the marathon was shut down because there was landslide across the course and the runners were shipped back to the start in a fleet of buses.
Jess Scott and I followed the race on our bikes more that halfway around the lake from where we started and then had to turn around and ride back around the lake again to get home. Not sure how Bevan and Vanessa took the news – probably ran back and rode home.
If you take a look at this pano you can get a good idea of how far we rode. You can see Mt Annupuri in the distance.
All in all a great day, but long – 145km, 7 hours on the bike – glad the crew took it easy on me.
Tagged as:
cycling,
Hokkaido,
Japan,
marathon,
people,
Photography,
running,
toyako
I’d forgotten how much fun Cricket can be. After a few weeks away it was cool to catch up with some friends jump in the car and take a road trip up to Jozankei just out side of Sapporo.
Great weather welcomed us and 2 teams ready to do battle – it was basically India and Pakistan v’s the World, the World being a rag tag collection of expats from all over and 1 Japanese guy.
(click on the images to view them at a larger sizes)
Being Australian and bought up on cricket i was keen but i hadn’t actually played cricket for about 25 years but before i knew it found myself steaming in to the crease fancying myself as a pace man. It didn’t quite work out as a was hoping no glory and lots of wides.
The rules have changed since i last played with the advent of Twenty20 apparently and anything bowled down the leg side is a wide…anyway it was all good although we got smashed.
The world went in to bat and I thought we were doing pretty well when all of a sudden we were rocked by a stunning HAT TRICK.
Brendon Simon and Sam all gone in 3 Balls – ouch.
Kiwi Brendon restored some pride for the World but it wasn’t quite enough and we were down going into the lunch break but not out of the game. Check out the serious lunch BBQ.
At the end of the day India Pakistan were too good for the World ( no one was blaming the full stomachs or copious amount of beer consumed ) will be interesting to see how the World recovers before next match.
If you would like to see more pics from the day there is a larger collection of shots here .
Tagged as:
bbq,
cricket,
Hokkaido,
Japan,
niseko,
people,
Photography,
spring
