Osamu Kurimura, Director of the Tour of Japan
Mele of Bicycling Participation Report

Mr. Kurimura, the event director of Japan’s largest international cycling road race “Tour of Japan,” participated in the “Mele of Bicycling”! Here is Mr. Kurimura’s report on his participation.
*The event is currently closed.
*This article is a reprint of May 2021 article.

Participation report by Osamu Kurimura

I participated in Mele of Bicycling, a new type of online event organized and managed by Global Ride Events!

This online ride event is a new style of online ride event that was created after the Haleiwa Metric Century Ride, a real ride event held every April on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, was cancelled due to the Corona Disaster.

I immediately perused the official Mele of Bicycling website to see how I could enjoy Hawaii while in Japan.

Well, this is new! All you have to do is find a Hawaii near the area where you usually run, send in your driving log and a photo, and you can get original goods, which is perfect for the Corona disaster!

So, I took up the challenge immediately.

I chose the “Half Metric Century (50km)” course this time.

There are other distances to choose from: 100km/200km/500km, but since it was before the Tour of Japan, we chose a compact distance that could be completed in half a day.

And first, we searched for “Hawaii” around our hometown! As a result, we arrived at the following three “Hawaii” locations.

[1st place] Kona’s Coffee

https://stores.konas-coffee.com/111214

[2nd place] Oluolu Aina

https://oluolu-aina.com/

[3rd place] Holo Holo Cafe

http://holoholocafe.com/

So, here’s a brief report on the 50km run through three “Hawaii” locations!

The starting point is Kona’s Coffee. It’s a place I always casually pass by, but when I stop to take a picture again, it’s totally Hawaii!”

On the way to the second Hawaii, we rode the Olympic Road race course.”

We arrived at Oluolu Aina, which means “comfortable table” in Hawaiian. I was able to get a nice halo shot, and I’m already feeling like I’m in Hawaii!

The usual sky over the Tama River is somehow the sky of Hawaii! (haha)

Our final destination was Holo Holo Cafe, a renovated café that looks like it belongs in rural Hawaii.

We came back to Kona’s Coffee again and ran a perfect 50 kilometers!”

What I noticed when I participated in this online ride event was the strange sensation that the course I usually run somehow transformed into Hawaii when I tried running with a renewed awareness of “Hawaii” in mind.

We are still having a difficult time with the Corona disaster, but there are many ways to enjoy it depending on your ingenuity, so why don’t you all give it a try?

Click here for Osamu Kurimura’s ride course.

TRIP&TRAVEL CULTURE
Tokyo old town bicycle stroll #02
Searching for the remnants of Edo’s oldtown legend, Hokusai.(Part 1)

In 1856, the young French printmaker Bracquemond was shown a collection of ceramics by an acquaintance. These ceramics, imported from Japan, a country then closed to foreign relations, would likely have been rare in Western Europe. However, what captured his attention was not the ceramics themselves but their wrapping paper. It was a page from Katsushika Hokusai’s “Hokusai Manga.(Hokusai Sketch)” Impressed by the artwork, Bracquemond went on to obtain a copy of “Hokusai Manga” through great effort and introduced it to his painter friends in Paris, eventually leading to Hokusai becoming widely known across Europe from France. …Unfortunately, the story is sa […]

#Hokusai #Tokyo
TRIP&TRAVEL CULTURE
Tokyo old town bicycle stroll #02
Searching for the remnants of Edo’s oldtown legend, Hokusai.(Part 2)

Tracing the footsteps of Katsushika Hokusai by bicycle – Part 2 of the short series. This time, we will start with Hokusai in his twenties, when he entered the Katsukawa school and plunged into the world of ukiyo-e. Table of Contents  1. In the Sumo Town (Ages 20~) 2. Man of the North Star (Ages 30~) 3. Becoming Hokusai, Katsushika Hokusai (Ages 40~) 1. In the Sumo Town (Ages 20~) Hokusai was allowed to use the name Katsukawa Shunro within just one year of entering the Katsukawa school, where he produced ukiyo-e prints (note that he changed his art name over 30 times in his lifetime, but this column will consistently use “Hokusai”).At that time, the motifs of ukiyo-e prints […]

#Tokyo #Hokusai