Seeing Man Fly from Okurayama (Road To Japan)

Thirty minutes from downtown Sapporo on a steep slope, there is a place to race to manifest an ancient human dream, flying. Okurayama Ski Jump Stadium becomes the place where people fight gravity, fly and fly. This flying embodiment is given an arena and a spectacle of many people.

Okurayama Jump Stadium is the remaining monument of the Winter Olympics held in Sapporo in 1972, this is where the Ski Jump branch is contested. After the Olympics was over, the stadium was maintained by the Japanese government and became a crater candradimuka athletes Jump Ski Jump Japan.

I came right on the day off, this meant the day of the competition. People had flocked to the arena, the queue was long. Not only the audience that came, the families of the athletes who compete also come, even many families who come to bervakansi together. This arena became the meeting point of the Sapporo people who want to spend the weekend.

(Home Okurayama Ski Jump Stadium)

During a season like this, Okurayama and the surrounding area becomes crowded. To support the season, the local community then volunteers. The retirees become volunteers of road regulators, security, while young people become stewards or counter guards. The Jump Ski Jump competition that is regularly held makes Okura area become the center of the crowd.

Since I came with my invitation to get an access card for the Press, that means I can enter all areas in Okurayama Ski Jump Stadium. The stadium is broadly divided into sections, tracks, spectator stands, restaurants, observatories and Sapporo Winter Museum. It's just because there is competition, not all access is open. Only museums, tribunes and restaurants are freely accessible to visitors, while other places can not be accessed unless they have access cards.

(audience stands)

Tribune audience is the most crowded place, this is where the supporters of athletes who race to take place. The noise, the spectators shouted at each other for support, some brought drums and sounded noisily. There are also those who just sit still and busy looking at the paper with numbers written, those who are silent is apparently calculating the odds to place a bet.

Bet is indeed the main menu in every competition in Japan, legal. The betting audiences do it formally. They will count the papers containing the athlete's rankings, feel the odds, until finally feel steady and then head to the bookie to place the bet.

From this stands adrenaline allegations are forced to gurgle, how not when seeing from this very steep slope suddenly glide man with a long skateboard, then fly for a few seconds and glide far down. It seemed like the pause time and I was stunned in the stiffness.

(audience who pass each other)

Athletes who compete look busy, they pass around the glide. The athletes are busy warming up, preparing tools, consulting with coaches, until just resting awaiting their turn. In the cold, the athlete's competitive atmosphere heats up.

If it is time to compete, the athletes will rise to the track. The athletes themselves will carry the ski slats along with their wands, dressed in thick skis and making them look like robots that stiffen.

(athletes who are warming up before the race)

(athletes are heading for crossings)

I went up to the track, there was a special set of covers that had been provided. At the top of the Okurayama track there is a building as a starting point for glide. If not the season of this building can be entered visitors and become observatories, visitors can enjoy the panoramic city of Sapporo from the top of this Okurayama peak.

Suddenly the silence, it turns out the game will begin. The athlete is preparing at the top of the track, the visitors suddenly quiet, they are pounding. Silence broke out as the signal began, the heartbeat suddenly pounding and the atmosphere suddenly broke out in silence.

One figure slid from the top of the track, flanking the stick firmly, his body ducking creating an aerodynamic attitude to fight the wind. At the end of the track, suddenly the figure burst into the air, flying at altitude and landing hundreds of meters down there greeted by the hysteria of the audience.

In one event, there was a silence as the figure fought the wind, there was a breath held, a sense of awe and ending with joy after landing. In Okurayama, man manifests his dream to fly, against the wind, floating in the air.