Last weekend, on October 14-15, the 2006 All Japan ARDF Championships was held in Shizuoka Prefecture; near Fuji City; near Mount Fuji.

Some photos and links to the maps and results are here. It's all in Japanese, and Adobe Acrobat said I needed a Japanese Support Package to even see the results. There is a photo of all the competitors, and turnout was very good, with many high school students in M19 and W19.

I was a little surprised by the fairly tame hills when I looked at the two map links (80m/3.5MHz and 2m/144MHz). I'm being a little sarcastic when I write that, because although it is less hilly than I expected, the steep places are still really steep. Last year's World Orienteering Championships (WOC) were in Japan, and the two most notable aspects of "typical Japanese terrain" are the strange hill shapes and the steep, steep hills.

On the 2m map, I noticed the name "Rob Plowright" and some dates that indicate he was the mapper. Coincidently, I remembered Rob's name from attackpoint.org.

I contacted Rob and asked him to describe the terrain:

 The name of that map is Marubi.

 It means "ring of fire." The two large green Japanese characters at the top left of the map - the upper one is "maru" and means circle or ring, the second one is "bi" and means fire.

 It's on the south slope of Mount Fuji between 500-700m above sea level (Google Maps link).

 The green area with TX3 in the middle is a lava flow from the year 1707 - the last time Fuji erupted. The lava flow areas form Marubi Nature Reserve which gives the map its name. The forest in that area is mixed deciduous with thick, prickly undergrowth and the ground is VERY rocky. The rest of the forest is Japanese cedar plantations which feed the paper mills in Fuji City just below the map.

 Japanese cedar forest is generally open and runnable with little or no undergrowth (the two action photos on the website give you a pretty good idea of what typical cedar forest looks like). But the runnability is very much reduced by the softness of the volcanic soil. Your feet sink in up to the ankles with every step - it's like running in sand.

 By Japanese standards this terrain is flat. Most japanese terrain is ridiculously steep - see some of the maps from WOC last year in Japan here (just click on some of the "map" links).

 The south side of Mt Fuji has many maps and is pretty much the best orienteering terrain in Japan. In 2000 there was a World Cup race on a neighbouring map, and Marubi was used for the 2005 Japanese (Long) Championships. -Rob Plowright

Thanks to Shigeru Aoki, JR1UTH, of the Japanese Amateur Radio League (JARL) for contributions to this article, for posting the maps, and for graciously tolerating my inability to write or read Japanese; and to Rob Plowright for his description of the terrain.

Main Page for 2006 All Japan ARDF Championships
Results (pdf files): 80m/3.5MHz 2m/144MHz (Both require Japanese Language Support Package)
Maps: 80m/3.5MHz 2m/144MHz