“Bike & Camp”, organized by one of our voluntary members, Yamashita(his official site）, was held at Kasmigaura, Ibaragi, on November 23 and 24.
It was rainy all three days including the preparation day, unfortunately. In spite of such weather, however, 38 participants stayed in their tents, 42 shops were open, and about 80 makers and lots of people supported the event. They had also planned various kinds of workshops, some of which were cancelled due to the heavy rain.
On the night of 23, there were a talk session and a charity auction. In the talk session, Mr. Nishikawa, who has been traveling around the world by bike, told us interesting stories based on his own experiences. In the charity auction, they offered more than eighty goods, which seemed to be so attractive to bike riders and camp goers.
There were three kinds of charity at ‘Bike & Camp’ this time. The first is the charity auction and the second is cake sale. We asked Mr. Nishikawa to sell cakes baked by a voluntary member of our NGO with his ‘free coffee.’ Mr. Nishikawa offers ‘free coffee’ during his bike travel around the world too. The third is collecting donation through ‘rental helmet’ for bike trial.
Though not many people tried riding a bike in the rain, our donation box became full, much more than the rental fee(100 yen for each).
The half of the charity auction went to the typhoon victims in Ibaragi and they donated the other half to our NGO. The total donation was over 100,000 yen. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
－－－－－－－－ The following is how the event goes. －－－－－－－
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(Left) Around Kasumigaura is 100 km. The event was held at Ayuzaki park, in the north lakeside.
(Right) Schedule of ‘Bike & Camp.’
The main tent and our NGO’s tent.
Our NGO’s tent. Look at the handmade signboard and photo panel.
(Left) They had lots of firewood in the main tent. The firewood was provided for free.
(Right) Rainy and windy all through the event, but bike riders didn’t seem to care.
(Left) Participants at the main tent. The first thing to do was to sign up for application.
(Right) Yamashita, being interviewed by the PR department of Kasumigaura city.
(Left) There were many food shops.
(Right) Original spoon making by pounding brass.
(Left) Kids are always energetic, rain or shine.
(Right) The bike with a small baggage car.
－－－－－－ The following is the night event and the next day －－－－－
A talk show was held upstairs of Kasumi Kitchen at the lakeside on Saturday night.
(Left) So many goods for the auction. There were bags attached to a bike, T-shirts, various kinds of bike parts, and a bike frame, which was sold at 20,000yen.
(Right) Looks like this auction was so exciting to bike freak participants.
(Left) Mr. Nishikawa was offering free coffee all through the event.
(Right) He sold our cakes with free coffee for our NGO.
There was a moment of sunshine on Sunday, only once though.
Rain, rain, rain. Every group started to put away things and take down before the closing time, 14:00.
Thanks to everyone at the event, it was successful even though it was under rainy weather.