Post by L Roebuck on Jul 2, 2006 8:47:44 GMT -5
Weekend Beat/ Caving enters the limelight: Two hours in the cold and darkness delivers stunning view in the end
07/01/2006
BY YUSUKE KAKUHATA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
It's cold, it's muddy and sometimes it hurts, but more and more of us are going underground: Caving is quietly catching on across the country.
There has been no celebrity endorsement, no marketing campaign touting its appeal. Instead the benefits of caving seem to be spreading via the Internet and that most powerful promoter, word of mouth.
For hidden in the blackness below is a different realm: One of stalactites and waterfalls in three-dimensional labyrinths where vertical and horizontal caves intersect. Even only a few hours away from Tokyo, there is no escape as complete as this.
At the foot of Mount Fuji, in the Aokigahara Forest, near the town of Fuji-Kawaguchiko in Yamanashi Prefecture, lies a national natural treasure: Fuji fuketsu cave.
Located 1,110 meters above sea level, the cave appears to be about 20 meters in diameter. But just 10 meters below is the entrance to a subterranean paradise.
Whole Earth Nature School, based in Shibakawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, has been offering caving day trips to Fuji fuketsu for a year. It's a trip that has proved particularly popular with urban types from Tokyo, Nagoya and elsewhere.
Accompanied by a guide and wearing protective gear (helmet, flashlight, overalls and cotton gloves are mandatory), 8,000 yen buys visitors a two-hour guided tour of the cave.
Two of these visitors were Tomomi Ikai, 40, from Tokyo, and Akiko Konaka, 33. They tried the tour--on the recommendation of another trekking tour company--in May.
The temperature inside the cave is around zero degrees. After walking only for a minute, the rough rocky slope suddenly brings the cavers to steps of ice. Water has seeped through the rocks and frozen. The cave is covered in icicles.
Inside, all is silence. Only the spot where the beam of the flashlight falls is visible. In darkness, the cavers must walk carefully to avoid slipping.
After 20 minutes, the path comes to an end.
Ahead are about 20 ice stalagmites between 15 and 80 centimeters high. When the guide holds a flashlight up to one of them, the translucent ice glows. Ikai and Konaka let out a small cry of amazement. "It wasn't easy," admits Konaka, who has just had to crawl on hands and knees through a 30-centimeter gap in the rocks. Her arms are covered in scratches. "But the view was stunning. You would never know that all this was under the forest. It was like another world."
Canyons, an outdoor tour company based in Minakami, Gunma Prefecture, began offering cave tours three years ago.
Its president, Mike Harris, is originally from New Zealand where caving is a well-established pastime. Caving can, Harris concedes, be a frightening experience, but it also offers a great sense of accomplishment. He adds that around 70 percent of participants are now women, and return visits are common.
In Japan, caving's popularity peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, when it became popular with college students. Student exploration clubs flocked to discover the mysteries below. Most popular was Itoigawa in Niigata Prefecture, with its massive vertical caves.
Caving's popularity waned--in the collegiate world at least--in the mid-1990s. But today there are about 30 organizations nationwide. Some of the larger clubs will take novice cavers below ground--and are finding that their membership is growing as a result.
According to Satoshi Goto, 39, vice chairman of the Speleological Society of Japan, an organization of leading cavers and researchers, the popularity of caving has increased exponentially: Where once caving could claim about 1,000 club-affiliated members nationwide, now thousands of people are joining.
Goto is under no illusions about his passion. "It is cold and it hurts," he acknowledges. "But it's worth putting up with the unpleasantness for the beautiful stalactites and waterfalls ahead. It's a way to break free from daily life, to work off stress."
Part of the beauty of caving is that there is still so much left to discover. Even around Tokyo there are caves about which very little is known. Rokoku-do, in the Okuchichibu mountains, for example, one of the largest caves found in the Kanto region, was only discovered in 1989.
It was hoped that the discovery would bring visitors to Okuchichibu. The former village of Otaki (now merged with Chichibu), Saitama Prefecture, commissioned the Pioneer Caving Club, whose members had discovered Rokoku-do, to look into the possibility of installing a ropeway.
However, it soon became clear that the distance of the cave from the nearest road would make the idea unprofitable.
Nonetheless members of the Pioneer Caving Club, which is based in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, have continued to study and explore Rokoku-do.
They have discovered the cave stretches more than 2,000 meters. But Koichi Ashida, 47, who heads the club, believes that they have only just begun--the cave offers yet more hidden depths still to explore.
(IHT/Asahi: July 1,2006)
Full Story:
www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200607010199.html
07/01/2006
BY YUSUKE KAKUHATA, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
It's cold, it's muddy and sometimes it hurts, but more and more of us are going underground: Caving is quietly catching on across the country.
There has been no celebrity endorsement, no marketing campaign touting its appeal. Instead the benefits of caving seem to be spreading via the Internet and that most powerful promoter, word of mouth.
For hidden in the blackness below is a different realm: One of stalactites and waterfalls in three-dimensional labyrinths where vertical and horizontal caves intersect. Even only a few hours away from Tokyo, there is no escape as complete as this.
At the foot of Mount Fuji, in the Aokigahara Forest, near the town of Fuji-Kawaguchiko in Yamanashi Prefecture, lies a national natural treasure: Fuji fuketsu cave.
Located 1,110 meters above sea level, the cave appears to be about 20 meters in diameter. But just 10 meters below is the entrance to a subterranean paradise.
Whole Earth Nature School, based in Shibakawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, has been offering caving day trips to Fuji fuketsu for a year. It's a trip that has proved particularly popular with urban types from Tokyo, Nagoya and elsewhere.
Accompanied by a guide and wearing protective gear (helmet, flashlight, overalls and cotton gloves are mandatory), 8,000 yen buys visitors a two-hour guided tour of the cave.
Two of these visitors were Tomomi Ikai, 40, from Tokyo, and Akiko Konaka, 33. They tried the tour--on the recommendation of another trekking tour company--in May.
The temperature inside the cave is around zero degrees. After walking only for a minute, the rough rocky slope suddenly brings the cavers to steps of ice. Water has seeped through the rocks and frozen. The cave is covered in icicles.
Inside, all is silence. Only the spot where the beam of the flashlight falls is visible. In darkness, the cavers must walk carefully to avoid slipping.
After 20 minutes, the path comes to an end.
Ahead are about 20 ice stalagmites between 15 and 80 centimeters high. When the guide holds a flashlight up to one of them, the translucent ice glows. Ikai and Konaka let out a small cry of amazement. "It wasn't easy," admits Konaka, who has just had to crawl on hands and knees through a 30-centimeter gap in the rocks. Her arms are covered in scratches. "But the view was stunning. You would never know that all this was under the forest. It was like another world."
Canyons, an outdoor tour company based in Minakami, Gunma Prefecture, began offering cave tours three years ago.
Its president, Mike Harris, is originally from New Zealand where caving is a well-established pastime. Caving can, Harris concedes, be a frightening experience, but it also offers a great sense of accomplishment. He adds that around 70 percent of participants are now women, and return visits are common.
In Japan, caving's popularity peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, when it became popular with college students. Student exploration clubs flocked to discover the mysteries below. Most popular was Itoigawa in Niigata Prefecture, with its massive vertical caves.
Caving's popularity waned--in the collegiate world at least--in the mid-1990s. But today there are about 30 organizations nationwide. Some of the larger clubs will take novice cavers below ground--and are finding that their membership is growing as a result.
According to Satoshi Goto, 39, vice chairman of the Speleological Society of Japan, an organization of leading cavers and researchers, the popularity of caving has increased exponentially: Where once caving could claim about 1,000 club-affiliated members nationwide, now thousands of people are joining.
Goto is under no illusions about his passion. "It is cold and it hurts," he acknowledges. "But it's worth putting up with the unpleasantness for the beautiful stalactites and waterfalls ahead. It's a way to break free from daily life, to work off stress."
Part of the beauty of caving is that there is still so much left to discover. Even around Tokyo there are caves about which very little is known. Rokoku-do, in the Okuchichibu mountains, for example, one of the largest caves found in the Kanto region, was only discovered in 1989.
It was hoped that the discovery would bring visitors to Okuchichibu. The former village of Otaki (now merged with Chichibu), Saitama Prefecture, commissioned the Pioneer Caving Club, whose members had discovered Rokoku-do, to look into the possibility of installing a ropeway.
However, it soon became clear that the distance of the cave from the nearest road would make the idea unprofitable.
Nonetheless members of the Pioneer Caving Club, which is based in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, have continued to study and explore Rokoku-do.
They have discovered the cave stretches more than 2,000 meters. But Koichi Ashida, 47, who heads the club, believes that they have only just begun--the cave offers yet more hidden depths still to explore.
(IHT/Asahi: July 1,2006)
Full Story:
www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200607010199.html