Kinosaki Car Rally Madness

 

On Saturday the 18th of April, thirty or so intrepid travelers and a handful of tenacious volunteers attempted to complete the first ever AJET Block 6 Car Rally. Months of careful planning and organization accumulated in one mammoth adventure all over Hyogo Prefecture.

Dear reader let it be known that your author is not, nor will she ever be a fan of the early morning, but for the sake of adventure she did rise at 6:30am and made her way to Maiko Park where she donned her onesie as that was Team Jaguar Puffs costume and bumbled half-awake into her team’s vehicle. The team then set off towards Himeji castle with a small detour to Mt. Rokko to retrieve a forgotten wallet.

Each team was given a list of tasks to complete ranging from simple – taking a picture of a team member filling up on gas, to the more difficult – catching a fish with your hands. In addition there were several checkpoints littered across the countryside with tasks and clues for each new location – find the dinosaur, climb to the top of a pagoda and drink hot spring water to name a few. Each team took to the challenges with gusto, perhaps too much gusto.

You see despite the thoughtful and meticulous planning of the organizers they forgot to include one small factor – just how desperately each team wanted to cross off everything on our lists and the lengths and detours we would go to do it. As a result a leisurely, well mapped eight stop drive through the countryside became a five stop race against the clock that may or may not have involved some very intense team building exercises in navigation and communication.

However fear not, for your intrepid travelers were made of sterner stuff with surprisingly competitive natures. We made our way from Himeji to Takeda to find a well hidden dinosaur, to Yabu to sample a delicious milkshake, to Mikata to explore a magnificent temple, with a brief stop at a beach near Toyooka to create an elaborate sandcastle that would later be destroyed in a variety of spectacular fashions, before finally ending our trip in beautiful Kinosaki.

When the journey was finally over we made our way to a cabin in Yoka for the night were we ate, drank, and were merry, as well as very very tired. Despite the hopes for a wild night, in the end many of us retired shortly after the sumptuous banquet prepared for us by the priceless volunteers. For those of us that did persevere into the early hours of the morning there was laughter, stories, and brilliant company.

The trip was hellishly long, fraught with complications as is expected of a first time event but hands down it was one of the best weekends I have ever had. Early morning or not, I will be doing it again, and I think if you have the chance, you should too.

Rackle Beaman