Summer 2002 Newsletter

Letter from the president

Dear OutdoorSIGers,

Summer is finally here! By now you all should have removed your snow tires and packed away those kerosene heaters. I hope you are all out enjoying the fantastic weather and not sitting around endlessly watching the world cup matches like me! In all fairness it is the FIRST time I have actually watched Japanese TV for pleasure.

2001 was truly a banner year for OSIG, and I wish to thank Mike Sandstrom, Jamie Hutchinson, and Graham Ferreday, and Nick Piper for all that they have given. Going into my third year as an OSIG volunteer let me say that I am really excited about the future. We have some great people coming in to help out and a solid foundation to work on. However, we still have many positions to fill and could use some help to keep the group growing. Some of our goals for this year are to expand our website (www.outdoorsig.com), increase membership participation and events, and expand more into the prefectural level. These bold ambitions are in line with our aim to make OutdoorSIG the premier establishment for outdoor activities in Japan. Look for changes in our website including: a new signup and payment information section, official OutdoorSIG event sites including POWDATOPIA, SADO EARTHFEST , and BONIN ISLANDS, forms to submit information directly on the website, as well as many updates and textural changes. If you feel like helping out please don't hesitate to contact me at pres@outdoorsig.com.

Cheers,
John Marshall

DEADLINE FOR ARTICLES FOR THE FALL 2002 NEWSLETTER IS AUGUST 31st - send articles as word doc attachments to newsletter@outdoorsig.com.

Back to Top

Letter from Recruitment

Hello everybody,

Here's a short message from OutdoorSIG Membership Recruitment and Sign-up about how to become a member. If you aren't a member yet and you want to become one, here's what you do:

*Talk to your OutdoorSIG ken-rep, get an application form and pay the 500 yen fee.

**IF you DON'T have a ken-rep, talk to your prefectural AJET representative OR click here for the sign up form, fill it out and give it to either your OSIG ken-rep or the AJET prefectural rep.

*** COMING VERY SOON…You will be able to sign-up on the internet and pay the 500 yen fee via Post Office Account. This should be working soon, so keep checking back for updates.

*To sign up your friends you can get a sign-up form from your OutdoorSIG ken-rep or download it here, as a Word document and print it off as mentioned above.

Renewer's Conference Update

First, I would like to thank all those people who renewed their OutdoorSIG memberships or who are joining us for their first year. I was at the Tokyo Re-contracting Conference myself and it was great meeting all of you there. The early timing of the bazaar made it a little difficult to meet a lot of people. Dane and I were signing people up until after the bazaar had officially ended. To those who didn't make it to the bazaar and wanted to signup, just follow the steps above and we'll be happy to get you signed up and sorted out ASAP.

If you have any questions, please email me (Iwate Dave) at signup@outdoorsig.com . So, strap on your boots and get out there!

From OutdoorSIG Recrutiment

Back to Top

Letter from the Interim Webmaster

Thought I would jump on the sayonara band wagon... Have loved my time with OSIG, been wicked to meet so many cool people. Keep spreading the word, OSIG can only get bigger and better. It is well worth getting involved with OSIG, it is run by a fantastic crew for fantastic members.

Have a good one

Nick (nick@nickpiper.com)

Back to Top

National Crew Bios

The national crew holds these positions April 01 2002-March 31 2003

For info on what the national crew actually does...check out:

THE BIOS......

DA PRES: pres@outdoorsig.com
John Marshall

1. FULL NAME: John Douglas Marshall
2 NICK NAME: Aomori John...and make your own
3 YEAR ON JET: 3rd year
4 PREFECTURE: Aomori ken
5 OUTDOOR INTERESTS: Camping, Hiking, Skiing, basketball (outside), etc
6 PAST POSITIONS IN OSIG: Used to help out with interactive, website, membership recruitment, and other various stuff.
7 OUTDOOR PLANS FOR THE COMING YEAR: look forward to organizing Bonins trip, going up to Niseko for the Adventure Race and maybe Powdatopia! Also want to create and nurture new events!

EVENTS STAFF: events@outdoorsig.com
Dave LeRose and Dane ...........

1. FULL NAME: David LeRose
2. NICK NAME: Iwate Dave, Fun Bobby
3. YEAR ON JET: 2nd
4. PREFECTURE: Iwate
5. OUTDOOR INTERESTS: Hiking, camping, snowboarding, skydiving, mountain biking.
6. PAST POSITIONS IN OSIG: Presently Recruitment, moving to Events this summer
7. OUTDOOR PLANS FOR THE COMING YEAR: To ride my mountain bike on every road that I can find, especially when they're not paved; climb Mt. Iwate; go on the Powdatopia trip and the Bonin Islands trip and hopefully make it to the White Water weekend and the Sado Island Earth Day Festival. Modest plans, yeah right!

FULL NAME: Dane Sjoblom
NICK NAMES: Gargoyle, Danezilla, Donan
YEAR ON JET: 2nd year
PREFECTURE: Saitama Prefecture (want to be pref rep if no ones there yet)
OUTDOOR INTERESTS: snowboarding, rock climbing, Mt. biking, camping. Want to do some kayaking, rafting, Mt. climbing.
PAST OSIG POSITION: Powdatopia Powder-hound
OUTDOOR PLANS THIS YEAR: rock climbing, rafting, mt biking, wine tasting campout, Mt. climbing.

MEMBERSHIP ADMINISTRATOR:
We NEED SOMEONE to join the team and help out with this!!! For more info on this check out the detailed explanation under WHO RUNS OUTDOORSIG?...click here:

THE NEWSLETTER EDITORS: newsletter@outdoorsig.com
Kristian Williams and WE NEED ONE MORE EDITOR!! (contact pres@outdoorsig.com if you are interested)

FULL NAME: Kristian Alexander Willams
NICK NAME(S): Kristianity, Special K
YEAR ON JET: going on 2
PREFECTURE: Shizuoka (or as we like to call it 'the Shiznit')
OUTDOOR INTERESTS: Hiking, biking, climbing, surfing (want to learn)
PASST POSITION IN OSIG: nil
OUTDOOR PLANS THIS COMING YEAR: Bike trip around lake Hamana in Shizuoka ken + BBQ, Night spear fishing, winter camping, Nagano onsen/ski trip, varioushikes

Wanna be the other newsletter editor??

MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT: signup@outdoorsig.com
need someone from August...presently Dave is working hard on this.

OSIG WEB TEAM: webmaster@outdoorsig.com
Sara Russell and Tim Wagner.......

1. FULL NAME Sara Russell
2. NICK NAME(s) ??? (we'll think of one for her by the end of the year!)
3. YEAR ON JET about to start my 2nd
4. PREFECTURE Hyogo
5. OUTDOOR INTERESTS Will pretty much give anything a go and have tried and enjoyed a lot of things, but I really love Skiing both downhill and cross country, and hiking.
6. PAST POSITIONS IN OSIG - N/A
7. OUTDOOR PLANS FOR THE COMING YEAR hike in the northern Japanese Alps, Sado Island again, Scuba license??!! Omine san hike in Nara ken SKI!! Join anything else that captures my interest

FULL NAME: Tim Wagner
NICK NAME(s): None that are usual printed
YEAR ON JET: Going into Number Two
PREFECTURE: Saitama (aka the New Jersey of Tokyo, though NJ definitely doesn't have such good peaks)
OUTDOOR INTERESTS: Kayaking, Tree Climbing, Rock Climbing, Backpacking, Snowboarding
PAST OSIG POSITION(s): Freshman
OUTDOOR PLANS FOR THE COMING YEAR: Anything involving large mountains and seeing not seeing anyone else other than the people I'm hiking with.

TREASURER: treasurer@outdoorsig.com

1. FULL NAME Michael Sandstrom
2. NICK NAME(s) Big Mike
3. YEAR ON JET 4th year (private) (not a JET anymore!)
4. PREFECTURE Tochigi
5. OUTDOOR INTERESTS You name it... skiing, scuba diving, fishing, hiking, camping, canyoning, whitewater rafting, mountain biking, etc.
6. PAST POSITIONS IN OSIG: Prefecture Rep, Kanto Rep, President 01-02
7. OUTDOOR PLANS FOR THE COMING YEAR - Lots of rafting, canyoning, skiing, mountian biking and hiking. Will hopefully go back to the Bonins, Powdertopia, Sado, and other numerous activities.

ECO LIAISON: eco@outdoorsig.com

FULL NAME: Margot Palmer
NICK NAME(s): Margot (Queen optional)
YEAR ON JET: 2
PREFECTURE:Tochigi
OUTDOOR INTERESTS: Swimming, hiking, jumping off waterfalls(gingerly), camping and pretty much anything where I might end up with bruises.
PAST OSIG POSITION(s): my first year on natl crew!
OUTDOOR PLANS FOR THE COMING YEAR: Sado Island, Bonins, Powdatopia and lots of camping.

MEMBERSHIP ADMINISTRATOR:
We NEED SOMEONE to join the team and help out with this!!! For more info on this check out the detailed explanation under WHO RUNS OUTDOORSIG?...click here:

INTERACTIVE MANAGER:
The least active position on the national crew.....editing and working on the Interactive page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/outdoorsig/ The features of the interactive page are the OSIG interactive calendar, an OSIG chat forum...posting links, photos, messages - sound like your cuppa tea? contact: pres@outdoorsig.com

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING OUT ON THE NATIONAL CREW PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO pres@outdoorsig.com.........we are ALWAYS in need of your ideas and involvement!

Back to Top

Upcoming events

This is my last update for the OSIG newsletter.....as I'll be leaving Japan after being here FOUR YEARS (good luck to the new OSIG crew!). It's been awesome being in OSIG and meeting some many people all over Japan in the outdoors....on POWDATOPIA, on the BONINS ISLAND PARADISE, on the FUJI CLIMB, SADO HIKE AND EARTH CELEBRATION, WHITEWATER WEEKEND, HOKKAIDO WINTER BREAK TRIP.......the list goes on..... cheers to all those I've met....I hope more of you will continue to GET OUTDOORS! in Japan and get involved with OSIG. And maybe I'll see you in some chest deep POWDA somewhere eh? Off to follow the snow next season!

peacethruPOW
Hutch
(life-long email: hutch@alumni.uvic.ca)

ENJOY THIS NEWSLETTER........it's packed with many 'happy moment' articles.... (those on Sado this year know what I'm talking about!)

First off.... if you are staying in Japan make sure you signup with us for another year.
Second.....you all have to go and check out the BRAND-NEW EVENTS SECTION: with lots of info on the Annual OSIG events, and Non-OSIG annual events.

We are looking for people that'd like to be Event Coordinator for a single event (for more info see: events) as well as anyone that might wanna join Dane and Dave on the Events Staff.

AND HERE IS THE UPCOMING EVENTS June-Oct..... (stay tuned to the email list and check back to the homepage for updates to events)............

JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE JUNE

June 21st (every year)
Roll your own blackout
One of the ECO-PROJECTS that OSIG takes part in.... What better way to help the earth (and consequently the outdoors) than to join people all over the world on the same day and use as little energy as possible. On June 21st (the first day of summer) turn off all your lights and electrical appliances .........and roll your own blackout.
For more info on the blackout check out: http://www.rollyourownblackout.com/index-blackout.html

Sat June 29th-30th.
ANNUAL OSIG PRE-SEASON FUJI-SAN CLIMB
In order to miss the crowds on the "most climbed mountain in the world" OSIG's trip to Fuji-san is PRE-SEASON (How DO you close a mt. anyway?) No holiday necessary as we climb on a Sat night......to see the surreal sunrise on the Sunday morning. You might want to be in reasonable shape to attempt the 1700m vert climb.
Check out the article below and contact Lety at: letypastrana@hotmail.com ASAP if you are interested

JULY JULY JULY JULY JULY JULY JULY JULY JULY JULY JULY JULY

Friday, July 26th
FUJI-SAN MARATHON!
Feeling like a human lung?? .......check out the article below by an OSIGer that did it last year........ The Mt. Fuji Climbing Race is the most difficult climbing race in Japan! It is an event with two races, both of which begin at Fujiyoshida City Hall. The first is a 21 km course to the summit of Mt. Fuji and the second is a 15 km course to the Fifth Station of the mountain. In 2002, the 55th Annual
Mt. Fuji Climbing Race will take place on Friday, July 26th.
http://www.city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp/info/div/admin/html/english/index.htm

Fri July 26-Sun July 28
FUJI ROCK FEST
Not feeling up to the Fuji marathon? maybe this is more your speed.... Held at Naeba ski resort in Nagano....every year....camp and party for three days straight.
From the website:
"We are pleased to welcome back to Fuji Rock Festival 2002, The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Alec Empire, Audio Active, Gomez, Shibusashirazu Orchestra and Brahman. Plus we have many FRF newcomers Spiritualized, The String Cheese Incident, Muse, Doves, Electric Soft Parade, the Parkinsons and so much more."
For all the info check out: http://www.fujirockfestival.com (there is an English version too!)

AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST

date TBA
OSIG's HOKKAIDO SUMMER PEAKS TREK
Join other OSIGers as we trek around the hyakumeizan in Hokkaido....Niseko, Daisetsuzan range, Shiretoko peninsula, Rishiri Island etc. Inspired by the three Brits that hiked over the length of Japan on the 8,000km+ hyakumeizan challenge to raise money for landmine clearance.
Check out their site: http://www.japanesemountaintrek.org.uk
WE ARE IN NEED OF AN EVENT COORDINATOR FOR THIS........please get in touch if you are interested....someone to figure out when and where to meet up.

BICYCLE for EVERYONE'S EARTH (BEE) ECOSIG trip (from Aug thru Oct)
A multi-week trip for the eco-conscious and super genki!...travelling the entire length of Japan by bike to raise environmental awareness. The BEE Ride across Japan started in 1997 when a group of three ALTs rode their bicycles from Wakkanai, northern Hokkaido to Kagoshima, in southern Kyushu. The subsequent BEE Rides were equally successful. This year, get in on the Bicycle for Everyone's Earth.....no matter how small your contribution to the ride it would be much welcome.
Check out their website at: http://www.beejapan.org

Date TBA
SHIZUOKA AJET SUMMER FUJI-SAN CLIMB
High season in August with often crowded trails.......yet still chilly at the summit! Stayed tuned for further in on the OSIG email discussion list.... The Annual Shizuoka AJET Fuji Climb.... I don't know how long the tradition has been going on, but every year at the end of the climbing season we like to round up the new ALTs who've just arrived and haven't had time to hear the horror stories to send them on an all-night climb up our prefecture's tallest inactive volcanoe, also known as Mt. Fuji, Fujisan, or That (long list of colorful and bitter expletives) Mountain That I Swear I Will Never Climb Again. Some say that being the first in Japan to see the lovely sunrise makes it all worth it, others that it's just something that has got to be done, and still others are just are insane, I suppose, but there's something about the world's most photographed mountain that beckons. If you are eagerly awaiting your very own opportunity for self-abuse, keep an eye on the OutdoorSIG announcements and track down the newly inaugurated Shizuoka AJET Prefectural Representative sometime before August. The price is usually well under ¥6000 for a bus ride to and from Fujinomiya station to the starting gate at the 5th station, some volunteers to aid and abet, and some 50 or more comrades in climbing.
STAY TUNED TO THE EMAIL LIST FOR FURTHER INFO........NOT ON THE EMAIL LIST??GO TO: Interact to signup

Date TBA
IBARAKI AJET FUJI-SAN CLIMB
Ibaraki AJET run a Fuji-san climb usually every year in August (soon after the new JETs arrive).....if you are interested in joining them in the climb contact them directly. http://www.ibarakijets.org

SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER

Know of any events?? Drop us a line at events@outdoorsig.com

OCTOBER OCTOBER OCTOBER OCTOBER OCTOBER OCTOBER OCTOBER OCTOBER

Sun Oct 6th
THE NISEKO ADVENTURE RACE
Check out the TWO articles below on this amazing event!!
Go hardcore on the Health and Sports Day!!!....form a team and partake in the 10km raft-20km Mt bike-10km run in some of the most spectacular scenery in Japan...nestled under Hokkaido's Fuji-san ...Mt.Yotei. Check out info on group that organizes the triathalon...the Niseko Adventure Centre: http://www.nac-web.com/events/races/race_en.htm
From the website "The annual NAC Niseko Adventure Race will be on again this year for one and all. Consisting of 10km rafting, 20km MTB and 10km run stages its a great race to get your friends together. To be held on the 6th of October (the weekend before the long weekend) Each team is to be made up of both male and female with 4 people. Price per team - 20,000 ¥"

Sun Oct 13th
NAC RAFTING RACE
same again at the Niseko Adventure Centre..... Yes, the NAC Niseko Rafting Race is another event not to be missed. Get your team of four people in that raft and down the river in the fastest time possible. Its a 10km course with rapids and rocky sections to be navigated so make sure you all work together. To be held on the 13th of October (the long weekend) Price - 18,000 ¥ per team including all the necessary gear.

POWDATOPIA preview

I know it's summer………but no doubt some of you are already crazing POWDER. Just to get you excited we wanted to tell you about the sick sick sick deal we hooked up for the Hakkoda portion of POWDATOPIA 2003. (Feb 09-16, 2003)

PeacethruPOW

DEADLINE FOR ARTICLES FOR THE FALL 2002 NEWSLETTER IS AUGUST 31st - send articles as word doc attachments to newsletter@outdoorsig.com.

Back to Top