RE: MUNI at Mt. Fuji
Dear Jack (and Kato-san and other Japanese organizers),
I’ve climbed Mt Fuji twice, up 2 different routes (Gotemba once -
that would be long but fantastic) and feel it would be perfect for a
unicycle descent at least for me or any of the guys I regularly ride
with - I know my 11 year old son could handle it perfectly well, but
he’s done harder stuff in the past. But the ascent (carrying or pushing
the unicycle) is probably too difficult for most people who aren’t used
to high altitudes. So maybe it isn’t the best idea as a huge group
event. I was picturing it as just a small event for a few of the more
experienced mountain unicyclists - maybe unofficial.
I think it’s a great idea to have a superevent though (modeling it
after Tiananmen would be perfect). When I lived in Tokyo, we often rode
Mountain Bikes through downtown in the early morning hours (best on
Sundays), going down staircases and just exploring around - for instance
to Tsukiji, Ginza, Ueno, etc. A route down by the palace on on Sunday
morning would probably be great.
Another place I’ve hiked many times is Hakone. If it were more of a
mountain unicycle superevent, I’m sure a ride by one of the lakes or up
a small peak there could be arranged. Once back in 1978, I took a great
hike around one of the Fuji Go Ko (5 Lakes). You want something that is
long enough to be interesting, but not too long so that people get
really tired. Maybe 3-5km? It should be near something else (either
downtown or near the Muni events) to avoid extra transportation
difficulties.
I think it’s great that the planning is already going - it’s certainly
not too soon to start.
See you in Tokyo, and let us know how the planning goes!
—Nathan
-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Halpern [mailto:jack@kanji.org]
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 8:06 AM
To: Nathan Hoover
Cc: rsu@unicycling.org; ‘Masuda’; ‘Tsuchiya’; ‘Yuuichiro Kato’; ‘izumida
daiki’; ‘Masanori Wakae’
Subject: MUNI at Mt. Fuji
Nathan Hoover wrote…
>Hi Jack,
> Sounds great (although I would’ve preferred somewhere outside Tokyo
as
>I’ve spent years there). Anyway, Muni at Mt Fuji sounds fun and I’ve
never
Yes, it will be a great event I expect.
>climbed it during the “season”. Imagine how much fun it will be riding
down >from the summit with a bunch of people on unicycle!!! They should
make that
To tell you the truth, one of the first things I thought of was
superevent like
Kris and/or you riding down Mount Fuji. We discussed it a at the recent
committee meeting and it seems that it is very dangerous because of
falling rocks, and I imagine it’s also against the rules, so they
wern’t fort the idea. I dowish there
is some way toswing it.
At any rate, I stringly recommended a big even equivalent to Tiananmen
or the Great Wall ride in China. I will keep working on it. If someone
has ideas,
please come forward.
>an organized activity for one day, maybe start at midnight for the
full >affect. > >I’ll be there with my family (3). I don’t know how
many people from the SF >area in California will make it, but I’d guess
5 to 10. > >Looking forward to it! >
>—Nathan-
Stay on top, Jack Halpern
Executive Director for International Development
International Unicycling Federation, Inc.
Website: http://www.kanji.org