Fall 2003

Letter from the Editor

If you want some ideas, this episode has some stories and tips for ways to explore Japan. You can walk it, on the Road to the Past, bunt it, by trying some Park Golf, or even soar, as in Freefalling and When Pigs Fly. There's also a list of Japan's Top Spots to give you lots of ideas. Have fun finding Japan, upside down, inside, and out.

Beat your winter blues and start your next journey!

The editor,
Ashlea

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Letter from the President

Outdoorsig is coordinates and plans many outdoor activities in Japan and we work to organize the logistics of trips with our members as well as help to subsidize the participation fee. The most popular and longest running Outdoorsig Event is called Powdatopia, held every year in Hokkaido and Aomori, this chance to play in the powder snow is not to be missed. If you like water sports and travelling to exotic islands in the middle of nowhere you should go on our annual Bonin Islands Paradise trip. Except for the 24-hour ferry ride, this trip is heaven on earth. Other events include a May white water rafting trip in Tochigi, a late June Fuji Hike and a group who goes to see the Sado Earth Celebration. For more information on these events and others please refer to the events section on our website.

Hopefully, you will get out and explore Japan on your own too. There are many ways to do this. On our website you will find a wealth of information about different activities in Japan under the links section and in the database of articles - all short articles describing an outdoor experience in Japan have been written by members and can be submitted to Ashlea at newsletter@outdoorsig.com. By taking part in events posted on our interactive discussion list (discussed below) or organizing an event in your area you will also have the chance to interact with other JETs with similar interests all over Japan - a great way to see more of this beautiful country and make new friends while doing it. You can either post your event on the interactive site or if it is a larger scale event or you simply want some information about events please contact Dave at events@outdoorsig.com. Best of all why don't you get involved by volunteering to help out as a National Crew member, event coordinator, or as a Prefectural Coordinator. If you want to help out please contact Kim at interactive@outdoorsig.com. We are dependent upon our members getting involved. We currently REALLY need people with computer access and or knowledge to help us manage and edit the website, but we are ALWAYS in need of your ideas and involvement! If it seems that there are no events in your area, or information on the website about it, this does not mean that there is nothing to do. It just means that no one has told us about it. If this is the case why not get out and explore, and then either post the info on the discussion list, write an article about it or send it directly to Ashlea to put into the newsletter.

We have a great National Crew this year and for the first time it is scattered all over Japan from top to bottom, so if you have any questions feel free to contact me, or any of the other members of the National Crew.
Dave LeRose (Iwate) Events and Treasurer events@outdoorsig.com
Tim Wagner (Saitama) Events and Web Help TWAGNER@smcvt.edu
Kim Valch (Saga, Kyushu) Interactive interactive@outdoorsig.com
Ashlea Betzen (Nagano) Newsletter newsletter@outdoorsig.com
Paula Ruffell (Niigata) Admin admin@outdoorsig.com
David Lutz (Saitama) Recruit/Signup signup@outdoorsig.com

I hope to see you out and about on the trails or on the slopes,

Sara Russell
Outdoorsig President
pres@outdoorsig.com


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IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Outdoor Special Interest Group Discussion Listserves:

Outdoorsig has one mailing list set up with yahoo groups. It is called outdoorsig. All new members have automatically been signed up to this list (hence your receiving this e-mail). This list is used to send out our seasonal newsletter as well as other important information to all our 400 or so members.

It is also a discussion list, which any member can use to post messages and publicize upcoming events. It is also a good way to hear about events in your area and meet people with similar interest. I strongly urge everyone to use this list, otherwise no one will know about the many "spur of the moment" outings that are not included in our seasonal newsletters. You will all be added to this list soon as well. Unlike the previous list you must reply within 7 days to the invitation e-mail, which you should receive soon (see example below) in order to join.

The invitation e-mail for the outdoorsig list looks like this:
Example of Invitation E-mail:
Hello newoutdoormember@aol.com,
You've been invited to join the outdoorsig group hosted by Yahoo! Groups, a free, easy-to-use community service.
By joining outdoorsig, you will be able to exchange messages with other group members, store photos and files, coordinate events and more.
This invitation will expire in 7 days.
Here's an introductory message from the group moderator:

Osig would like to invite you to join the Outdoorsig Discussion Listserve. Please reply to this message in order to join.

1) Go to the Yahoo! Groups site by clicking on this link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/i?i=7AcPEUZGlC4clPiY1BHNznDUcxM&e=outdoorjohn%40aol%2Ecom
(If clicking doesn't work, "Cut" and "Paste" the line above into your Web browser's address bar.)
-OR-
2) REPLY to this email by clicking "Reply" and then "Send" in your email program
If you do not wish to join the outdoorsig group, please ignore this invitation.

Once you have become a member you can post messages to the whole group by sending e-mails to outdoorsig@yahoogroups.com If you have a Yahoo! ID you can also join by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/outdoorsig and clicking on "join this group." If you have a Yahoo! Id you can also post photos and files on this site.

For Your Information:

We know how frustrating it can be to receive loads of junk mail. Members of the Newsletter list can expect to receive about 2 emails per month on average. The discussion list postings vary greatly (sometimes none sometimes 10 a month). We ask all members to limit their postings to Japan and outdoor related topics and send replies directly, rather than to the whole group.

You can unsubscribe from the list at any time by following the instructions contained at the bottom of every message. You can edit your yahoo list settings for the yahoo discussion list by logging onto yahoo! groups and clicking on the profile section (top right corner)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/outdoorsig

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Upcoming events

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