{"id":3668,"date":"2014-02-26T11:48:35","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T02:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/?p=3668"},"modified":"2014-02-28T10:31:29","modified_gmt":"2014-02-28T01:31:29","slug":"special-feature-geocaching-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/2014\/02\/special-feature-geocaching-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Feature:<\/b> Geocaching 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adventures await!<\/p>\n

Did you love scavenger hunts as a kid? Were you a champion at hide-and-seek? Why not join Geocaching, a growing phenomenon ascribing to those interests.<\/p>\n

So, what is geocaching you may ask? It is a worldwide scavenger hunt made for the modern adventure-loving person! Using a GPS enabled device, players may search for, find, or hide \u00e2\u20ac\u02dccaches\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 almost any place imaginable on earth. Caches may be as small as a bolt magnet designed to blend in when perfectly placed on a street pole, for example, or large plastic containers hidden under fallen logs in the forest. Once found, you sign the logbook (often just a strip of paper) with your username and the date found and then log the find online. Caches are not always physical; some are virtual, requiring a visit to a location and taking a picture, or unknown, meaning that the player must solve a puzzle at the location of the coordinates to reveal a final location or information they must communicate to the cache owner in order to log their find. Others are event caches, meaning that geocachers get together at a location for an event and must register with the event owner to secure their log.<\/p>\n

\"Found<\/a>
Found a cache at the top of a hiking trail which gives this beautiful view of Kobe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since all caches are hidden by geocachers, you can often find some pretty neat places known to the local geocachers that may not be on your favourite travel site. I have geocached in Canada, Japan, and South Korea and have some pretty spectacular photos from places I have visited. Often, geocaches are hidden in locations with high muggle traffic (geocachers affectionately refer to non-geocachers as muggles).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A geocache is located on this art piece in Kobe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Merikenpark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This has occasionally led to interesting looks from passers-by as I duck my hands underneath a bench or phone booth in search of a small magnetic cache. I love when this happens because it can sometimes lead to a conversation where I get to share my adventures with a new friend.<\/p>\n

Besides finding caches, players can also send out Travel Bugs, key chains with a trackable code, to travel the world. Players can specify a certain goal for the Travel Bug and watch as fellow geocachers take it from cache to cache and player to player to achieve its goal. I found a Travel Bug in Canada that wanted to travel the world, so I brought it with me and dropped it in a cache in Kobe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Meriken Park. It has since travelled to Tokyo and will hopefully reach another country soon!<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A Travel Bug I found in a cache across the road from Ni-jo castle in Kyoto.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Geocaching is a low cost and high reward activity; there is a free app and full version app offered by Groundspeak, owner of geocaching.com<\/a> available for smartphones. Membership on the website is 100% free, although premium memberships may be purchased at a low annual cost for extra perks. Geocaching.com has amazing video tutorials and resources for geocachers of all levels and posts regularly on Facebook, Instagram and the geocaching blog.<\/p>\n

So, if you ever find yourself with a free day and need an excuse to get out of the house, want to rediscover a frequently visited spot, or are just looking for some adventure at a new site, why not give geocaching a try! I am always available to go on a geocaching adventure, so send me a message at jmcsavage@gmail.com<\/a> or look me up on geocaching.com as jem383!<\/p>\n

Jessica McSavage<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first ever geocache find, it’s a recycled mint container!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adventures await! Did you love scavenger hunts as a kid? Were you a champion at hide-and-seek? Why not join Geocaching, a growing phenomenon ascribing to those interests. So, what is geocaching you may ask? It is a worldwide scavenger hunt made for the modern adventure-loving person! Using a GPS enabled device, players may search for,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":3670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[392,107],"tags":[393],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/IMG_1291.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3668"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}