The Hida Takayama Photo Rogaining event returns this year with a new theme, The Story of Trees through the Ages. 飛騨高山フォトロゲイニング 時代（とき）をめぐる木と樹の物語 is the full title of the event. Last year's theme focused on Kanamori Nagachika and various locations that were impacted by him. This year, the focus was on trees!
There are several millenia old trees in Takayama, but Takayama also has a rich history in carpentry and craftsmanship in wood arts. After the area was taken over by Kanamori in the late 1500s, he recognized the unique carpentry skills of the residents and cultivated their ability. Many of the resulting woodwork would be used for buildings throughout Gifu, Nagoya, and Kyoto.
Just like last year, the event was hosted at the Takayama City Museum and also just like last year, it was advertised very little. I think the posters at the entrance of the museum were the only indication it was happening. Once again, I didn't hear about it until a local friend sent me a message. Here's the link for information: https://photorogaining.com/event/4254/
This was my third photo rogaining event. I joined last year's Takayama Rogaining event as my first. Prior, I had never heard of this kind of event before. The etymology of Rogaining comes from the three people who coined the term, Roy, Gail, and Neil, and they first began using the term in the 70s. However, Photo Rogaining isn't all that different from Orienteering which dates back to 1897.
Overall, it's like a marathon, but you create your own path. 20 or 30 minutes prior to the start of the race, runners or teams of runners are given a map and a list of checkpoints. Runners have no knowledge of this leading up to the start.
Here were the map and list of checkpoints for this year:
Each checkpoint has a different point value. For each checkpoint you visit, that point value is added to your total. The team or runner with the highest point value wins. Photo Rogaining goes one step further by requiring runner to take photos of the target at each checkpoint. You are meant to recreate the photos listed on the checkpoint sheet.
Each Orienteering or Rogaining event has a strict time limit, so you must reach the finish line within the time limit while collecting as many checkpoints as possible. The Takayama Photo Rogaining event has a limit of 3 hours. You are deducted 30 points each minute you are late.
As an added bonus (or headache), the Takayama Rogaining event adds some extra bonus points. Last year, you could gain an extra bonus point for every photo you took of Kanamori Nagachika's name written out on a sign for a total of 20 bonus points. I didn't quite understand this last year, so I ignored it. Ultimately I lost 2nd place by 4 points. :/
This year's bonus points were much more cryptic and numerous.
Part 1 were the normal 通常 bonus points. At four of the checkpoints (numbers 1, 17, 25, 47), if you took an additional photo matching the ones posted, you could get an extra 5 points each. This was very clear and easy to understand. Find the stuff, and take a photo. Got it!
Part 2 were the secret 秘密 bonus points. There were 3 different collections of locations that each followed the theme posted on the board. If you went to each of the locations that matched the theme, you would be awarded either 40 or 30 bonus points.
The three themes were as follows:
Theme 3 - 40 points - 1000年の時を見てきた長生きの木
Theme 2 - 30 points - 400年の時をつなぐ4人の飛騨の匠
Theme 1 - 30 points - 100年の経済を支えた飛騨の大工を支える代表企業
At a glance, I just noticed 1000-year-old trees, 400-year-old takumi, and 100-year-old carpenters. At the time, I thought, Yeah, I could correctly translate these to understand them completely. However, I would have no idea which locations would match these descriptions. So, I choose to not focus on them and hope my path would collect these locations.
When the time came, we were able to open our maps and start plotting our courses. Having done these events twice now, I have learned that you want to make big swings towards the distant areas first, and clean up the points near the finish at the end. If you spend too much time getting all the near points at the beginning, you may not have enough time to get the high valued places further out.
This year's far out locations were nearly the same as last year's. So my plan was to grab a few near checkpoints while heading further west to Hida no Sato and the Shingu neighborhood. From Shingu, head directly north to the Kumano Shrine, which I visited back in February. And then head back downtown to grab any more points I could before the finish.
My plan was also to not get any checkpoints that required backtracking unless I had the time for it and they were high value.
At Noon, the bell was rung and the museum bay doors were open allowing everyone to spill out into the street and start running in their directions.
I immediately went to the 3 checkpoints clustered together at Nakabashi. First was point 3, the Sakura tree next to the bridge, 高山市基準木のサクラ. On the other side of the bridge was point 6, 木鶴大明神像, the statue of Mokkaku Daimei. Going back over the bridge again was point 5, a weeping willow tree, 高山市保存樹のシダレヤナギ.
3 → 6 → 5 // (14 points) // 12:04pm
It was a quick 14 starter points. Point 6 required a little backtracking, but no more than a minute.
I continued south along the river to get Point 7, a Sugi tree in front of a shrine, 高山神明神社のスギ. From Point 7, I had two options: go south for Point 16 or go west to Points 10 and 14. 24 is greater than 16 and it was the quicker path for further going west. My plan was to go for the big swings rather than clean up every checkpoint. (Ultimately, this was a mistake.)
I found Point 10, another shrine's sugi tree, 一本杉白山神社の先立スギ and then Point 14, a small ume tree next to another shrine, 飛騨天満宮のウメ.
7 → 10 → 14 // (+31 points / 45 total) // 12:16pm
I thought I was doing pretty good so far. That's quite a few points in a short time. Although, these events are marathons. It doesn't matter how fast you can grab points if you run out of energy. You need to keep going and continue grabbing more and more points.
Hida Sangyo 飛騨産業 (Point 17) was right next to Tenman Shrine (Point 14), so I quickly grabbed that photo. Point 17 was my first checkpoint with a bonus point. I needed to run inside and find the set of chairs. I thought they would be right by the entrance, but they were not. I ran through the ground floor and found nothing. After asking the receptionist, the photo was located in the back area on the second floor. Bleh.. waste of time.
17 → 5 bonus // (+22 points / 67 total) // 12:21pm
After collecting the points in the Tenman Shrine area, I went directly west to starting collecting points in the Matsukura area. This is where actually training for the event would've been helpful. Run, walk, run, walk. If I would've done a lot more running, I could've covered the distance much faster, which would've helped in the end.
Points 23, 24, 25 were all next to each other, and Point 25 had a bonus point. I first grabbed a photo of Point 23, 友好の丘, the hill of friendship. Then went off the main road to Point 24, 旧野首家, the former Nokubi house. On the hill behind the house was a small museum of mountain tools, 山岳資料館, Point 25. And, just inside the door, was the ice pick for 5 bonus points.
23 → 24 → 25 → 5 bonus // (+77 points / 144 total) // 12:39pm
I was slowing down, but I thought that I was still on a good pace, despite the time wasted at Hida Sangyo. Point 28 was nearby, but continuing up the hill to grab Points 26 and 27 were more lucrative. I thought that backtracking to Point 28 after would cost too much time. (Ultimately, this skip was fine.)
Point 26 was an easy find being next to the road. It was the entrance to another wooden furniture showroom, the Hida Mokuyuu-kan 飛騨木遊館. Point 27 was much more difficult to locate. It was one of seven 5 meter wooden statues in the "forest of good fortune," 飛騨開運乃森. I had never seen this place before, so I climbed in the backway, not realizing I was looking for the statue in front of the entrance. Another 5 minutes wasted and some energy wasted.
26 → 27 // (+53 points / 197 total) // 12:52pm
The next plan was to head further west and grab all the Shingu points. There were 3 locations worth 40 points each!
I was still able to keep moving and keep pace with time, but I was doing more walking than running. I started eating some of the chocolates we were given at the start. I also drank all of my water. I made a quick pick stop at Lawson to get another water.
I made it to Point 40 labeled as "a large tree near Harayama park" 原山公園近くの大樹 in 20 minutes. It wasn't hard to find, but I was slowing down. I went north from the tree to visit two craftsmanship workshops, Point 41 小坂彫房 Kosaka Woodcrafts and Point 42 川上憲一氏工房 Kawakami Woodworks.
Both woodworking locations were a little awkward as the photos meant encrouching into their businesses. You stood in front of the main window of Kosaka Woodcrafts and took photos while they worked. At Kawakami, there was a guy waiting for you. He escorted me into the workshop to take the photo.
40 → 41 → 42 // (+123 points / 320 total) // 1:23pm
Next, my main goal was to grab the northwestern-most points at Kumano shrine. Point 43 was nearby, but I was worried about time. The race was about half complete, and I assumed that it would take me an hour to go from Kumano Shrine to the finish. I wasn't even sure I could get all those points in 30 minutes. I decided that it required too much backtracking for the points to be worth it. (Ultimately, this wasn't that big a mistake, but it was still 43 points.)
I kept pushing forward to Kumano Shrine, even though my legs were starting to hit their limit. I went past my school and the surrounding businesses. I went across the bridge and cut across the rice fields. And I arrived at Point 55, 熊野神社のスギ, the Sugi trees at the entrance of Kumano Shrine, at 1:47pm.
At the same time, Mr. Shimizu (who won first place last year, and this year too) arrived. From there, the next point was 47, the ancient hut at Akahogi Park 風土記の丘 復元住居広場. Shimizu used the windy clear paths going up the hill to the park, but I terminatored my way through brush and thicket taking the straightest path to the hut. We arrived at the same time.
Having visited the hut earlier in the year, I knew exactly where the bonus point was. I went inside and snapped the photo.
55 → 47 → 5 bonus → 46 // (+153 points / 473 total) // 1:54pm
I was able to keep pace with Shimizu as we both got Point 46 at the same time heading back down the hill. Point 46 was a pile of charcoal and firewood 活エネの炭焼き窯と薪.
But, after that, my legs were done. This was the end of my big swings, and now I had to get back to the finish line before 3pm. I had one hour which was totally doable under nomal situations. Shimizu said he was running off to Sky Park, but there was no way I could get there. I kept moving quickly, but all of my remaining points would be small deviations from my straight path to the finish.
Looking at the map, I decided to head towards Takayama Station to grab Point 13 高山駅連絡通路の 屋台展示. There was a replica wooden festival float inside. I still had some time, so I went a little north to get a photo of the 1000 year old ginko tree at Kokubunji, Point 11 騨国分寺の大イチョウ.
13 → 11 // (+24 points / 497 total) // 2:36pm
From there, I saw some teams run north to grab Points 9 and 8. These points felt undoable in my situation, and I wanted to get closer to the finish line. So, I ignored them. (Ultimately, this was a big mistake.)
I went west to the finish line, and arrived with 15 minutes left. I quickly moved up the hill and got Point 2 ミネルヴァのフクロウ, the wooden owl in front of the library. Then with my final push, I grabbed Point 1 at the finish line, the Yajima Storehouse 矢嶋家塩蔵. Then I wasted time trying to find the bonus point, which was right inside the door.
2 → 1 → 5 bonus // (+8 points / 505 total) // 2:56pm
Having got that final bonus point, I went across the finish line and completed the race in 2 hours 57 minutes.
I thought I had done pretty well. I visited more locations compared with last year. My point total was lower, but the maximum point total was also lower. On average, my score was higher than last year! However, the bonus points killed me.
Again, there were three themes, and now I actually translated them:
Theme 3 - 40 points - 1000年の時を見てきた長生きの木 (1000-year-old trees)
Theme 2 - 30 points - 400年の時をつなぐ4人の飛騨の匠 (400-year-old Hida carpenters)
Theme 1 - 30 points - 100年の経済を支えた飛騨の大工を支える代表企業
(100-year-old Hida Businesses supporting area carpenters.)
Now at the end, these locations had been revealed.
Points 10, 11, and 16 contained the 1000-year-old trees. Very early in the race, I intentionally skipped Point 16 because I thought it was too far out of the way. Given everywhere else I went, this was a 56-point loss. Although, I may have skipped Point 10 if I went to 16 instead.
Points 8, 9, 41, 42 were the 400-year-old carpenters. I made the big swing to grab Points 41 and 42, but with so little energy left at the end and not so much time, I did not go the extra distance out of my way to get Points 8 and 9. If I had known these would've boosted my score an extra 30 points, I would've skipped Takayama Station and the Library. This was basically a 34-point loss.
Points 17, 28, 49 were the 100-year-old companies. This one was a wash anyways. I had only gotten Point 17. I could've done a little backtracking for Point 28 near Hida-no-Sato. But I had never considered going after Point 49. It was too far north. Technically, no real point loss.
Had I actually done training for the event and had better knowledge of these bonus points, my score could've easily been more than 100 points higher.
Shimizu got first place again this year by visiting nearly all checkpoints on the map. He only skipped four points. He skipped Point 49, which was too far north, losing him 30 bonus points. He also missed a 5-point bonus photo somewhere.
The standings were as follows:
1st Place - 768 points
2nd Place - 747 points
3rd Place - 693 points
4th Place - 603 points
5th Place - 557 points
6th Place - 510 points
7th Place - 505 points <--- It's me!
8th Place - 481 points
9th Place - 423 points
Ultimately, I ended at 7th place out of 9 people in my division. Not Last! Also, our division was the most competitive, so my score was pretty close the top places in the group and family divisions. 100 points would have boosted me to 4th place, but I would have absolutely not made the Top 3 this year.
They had a lot of extra prizes, so I was able to win something anyways. :)
Overall, I love running these Photo Rogaining events, but I always feel disappointed in the end. It's like the opposite feeling after completing a marathon. In both cases, poor training can result in poor times, but for Rogaining, there's always the worry of whether or not you are following the optimal path for your ability.
Anyways, I was only able to do two Rogaining events this year. I signed up for a third, but it was held only two days after this Takayama event. My legs were ruined the whole weekend, so it was impossible for me to join. I spent the rest of the weekend building that Lego Gameboy. (They sent me a map, though, so I could mentally practice.)
I'll try to do more next year! Maybe this time I will have the proper motivation to train for them. :)
