A Unicycling Trip to Japan
Three weeks ago Dana Schneider and I (Andy Cotter) left for Japan for a
two week tour of Japan unicycling. We met up with Craig Rogers (IUF
Director) after the second day. While I could bore you with all the
details of our trip and the things I learned (I can now eat just about
anything, raw or cooked, with chopsticks!) but I'll mostly focus on the
unicycling aspects (unless of course I get off the subject).
Unicycling in Japan is thriving. It is taught in many schools. Every year
another 2,000 Miyata unicycles get donated to schools for the purpose of
teaching (I forget who the donor is but it isn't Miyata). Both girls and
boys are taught unicycling but from my observations, mostly girls stick
with the sport. When it came to artistic riding, besides Kato and Daiki, I
saw no other guys doing artistic moves. There was guys racing but that was
about it. One explanation, from my host family, was that guys don't have
the patience to learn and other sports, such as baseball, lure them away.
The two major unicycling events that we attended had TV camera crews
covering the action. We (Dana and I) got interviewed (since I don't know
Japanese, I doubt the understood anything) and our pictures were taken for
newspapers. We also did three unicycle demonstrations for local unicycle
clubs. One of those demonstrations had a TV camera crew covering the
event.
Olympic Medalists
Between Dana and I we have seven current world champion
titles and the Japanese treated us like Olympic Gold Medalists. They asked
questions that I would have asked a top athelete (what we eat, how much we
practice, when we practice, etc.). Kids (and parents) all wanted
autographs and pictures. I was quite surpised as nothing like that has
ever happend to me before. Back home here in Minnesota I don't get such
nice treatment, its usually the guy honking his horn and yelling "hey bud,
where's your other wheel?"
Ekiden Marathon (Jan 12, 1997)
The Ekiden marathon was done along a river
on a 'bike' path. The marathon was 26 miles (in kilometers, of course).
There are six members in a team. Each member went a different distance.
The person would go out a certian distance and then turn around and come
back, handing the sash to the next member. To make things more interesting
(for me) two of the six had to be on 20" unicycles (with 4" cranks). Our
team lineup was as follows: Dana, Suzukake, Jack Halpern, Craig Rogers,
Daiki, and me. Suzukake and Daiki were at Unicon VIII so we kinda knew
them. We were the 'international' team. But our sign for opening
cerimonies transalted to the 'American' team. None of our team had
practiced this marathon so we didn't break any world records (not even the
sound barrier). I was the last one on our team and I had to go the
farthest 9.45 kilometers. Now, I don't mind riding distance but I don't
practice distance in the middle of winter back here in Minnesota. And when
I do go for distance I usually pull out my 28". So, here I was, borrowing
a unicycle going all out for 9 km. I passed up four kids on 20" unicycles
(those kids can go really fast on 20") and made my break for the finish
line. Becuase we were an international team, they had a finishing ribbon
for me to 'break' through (I found out later than only our team got to do
this). I then went to dismount my unicycle and found out that maybe I
should have practiced for the race. My muscles weren't happy. I was
walking kind of funny. I had to hobble around for awhile looking like I
enjoyed the race. Now, all this wouldn't be so bad but Dana and I had to
do a demonstration after lunch. So after a lunch of rice and many other
things I couldn't pernounce we started to practice. The practice area was
cobblestone. Slippery cobblestone. Slippery uneven cobblestone.
Cobblestone wouldn't be so bad, but we were fatigued with the race (at
least I was). As we started to warm up people started to gather around to
watch us (I have never had people watch us and applaude when we were just
warming up). We decided to cut parts of our routine and only do things
that could be done safetly on that surface. Just as we were finishing,
kids came up and started to ask for autographs. For the next half hour we
had kids mob us for autographs. Before Japan, the only place I signed my
name was on official documents. But now many hundreds of Japanese kids
have my signature on their unicycles (rims, tires, forks, cranks, seats
(bottom, sides, top, bumpers)), t-shirts, jackets, hats, socks, shoes,
hands, backpacks, and any type of paper they could find. Parents as well
as kids were coming up to us wanting autographs. Finally the orgainzers
pulled us away and told us it was time to do the show. The show went ok,
we did better then we expected and the crowd was appreciative. I was told
that there was about 300 riders in the event. Our team took 14 out of 16.
Which, of course, is better than 16 out of 16.
Chiba Track Meet (Jan 19, 1997)
At this event only Dana and I attended.
Craig left for home a few days before and Bill Gilbertson's plane was
delayed for 11 hours so he ended up missing it entirely. This event had
about 300 riders and all they did were three races: 1500m, 100m and 50m
1ft. The meet was very organized. It started on time and ended on time.
The opening cermimonies included the ride around the track and speeches.
There was about 15 officials in suits giving speeches. They even asked
Dana and I if we wanted to give a speech but we declined as nobody there
knew English well enough to translate (not that I like giving speeches in
the first place). Dana and I did a another demonstration with Kato and
Daiki doing their show after we finished ours. Daiki has learned an
increadable amount of new skills since Unicon (360 on giraffe, 360 to
wheel walk, cross over, side ride, etc.). The surface being a rubber track
was much easier riding surface for a artistic demonstration. Later, Dana
and I were 'mobbed' for autographs. We signed autographs for hours. I
decided to race so I borrowed a unicycle and waited in line with everybody
else. I didn't do so well in the 100m and 50m 1ft but I got the first
place in the 1500m for my age group. They made such a big deal that I took
first. Everybody new about it and commented on it for the next couple of
days. The start for the races is a different count than is done at Unicon.
Instead of the standard 1 2 3 GO, it was 3 2 1 GO, but in Japanese. Well
that is no big deal, I can adapt but they jump the gun much more than
what I am used to. By the time ichi (one) is said, they were out of the
gate and going strong. This means that they had a whole count on me before
I left the gate. I was left behind and had to catch up and I can't go as
fast as Kato (100m in 13 seconds) in the first place so catching up to him
(and the others) was not going happen.
Other Unicycling
As I mentioned ealier, we did some shows for school
unicycle clubs. Usually we did the show and then we signed autographs and
got our picture taken with the various members. The school gym were colder
than what I was used to. They don't have any heating at the gym and the
temperature in the gym was about 50 F. The unicycle clubs that we visted
(a total of three) were all girls with about 15-20 members. They used 20"
unicycles with 4" cranks.
Japan Unicycle Association (JUA)
The JUA office is located near the
Harajuku station. We visted the office twice. Once when we all went to
dinner to talk about unicycling, drink and eat foods that I never would
have touched normally. The second time just Dana and I visted and they
showed us the Meji shine (three million visit this shrine on New Years
Day) and took us shopping. The JUA is a strong organization with contacts
in all the right places. They have good relations with Miyata (unicycle
maker), Japan Department of Education and Coca-Cola (the main sponser of
unicycling in Japan). Each time we saw them they gave us gifts and fed us
really good food.
Quick overall impressions of Japan
Safe (Tokyo (33 million) is much safer
then any big American cities), orderly (people line up for buses and
subways in a orderly fashion), relatively clean (for the most part there
wasn't much garbage and I didn't see any evidence of garfetti), helpfull
(even though most people couldn't speak any English they did what they
could), expensive (our hosts picked up the tab on most everything and I
still dropped $800), amazing train system (trains and subways are the main
way of getting around) and interesting (very different from the Western
world).
This report turned out to be a bit longer than what I planned. If you have
questions about anything, let me know. What I wrote above is just a small
part of what I saw and learned.
If you want to see some pictures of the event, come on over and I'll show
you the huge photo album (just give me some warning so I can fry up some
raw fish for you).
There will be an article about the trip in an upcomming issue of the On
One Wheel with pictures.
Andy Cotter
Last modified: Sat Feb 8 19:30:48 EDT 1997