I`m back in Japan, this time at KOG Round 2 in KOBE. I`m wiritng this on the fly from a bike shop in Yokosuka called Cycle Cave. (Thanks Jun for the use of the laptop!) Thanks to Ken-san and his JYKK tour bus, we able to travel across the island from Yokosuka to Kobe. After about 8 or 9 hours we parked at Kobe docks at about 2:30am. In celebration, we decided to session a little bit before crashing out.

The contest venue was at a large mall with about 5 levels. There were people on every level watching the riders battle it out.

EVERYBODY that I had seen at last year`s KOG in Nagoya had progressed. This year there were about 6 girl riders entering and many more spectating. One girl was nine years old, rocking firehydrants! The future of flatland is going to be crazy.

There were a wide range of skill levels in the novice and expert classes. Some of the novice class riders were at expert skill level. The winner of the expert class was riding at pro level and did some crazy back wheel combos with his foot on the seat post. After winning expert, he proceeded to make it to the finals in pro the next day.

The level of the pro class is skyrocketing. It`s amazing to see these riders and think about the time everyone has dedicated to mastering their art. A Tokyo rider named Yohei Uchino took the gold medal. He was on fire as he owned all turbine halfpacker variations. The guy can pump turbine any trick. He looks like he`s dancing on his bike. Omedeto! (Congatulations!) to this swimming instructor.

MC Sharlee and his partner held it down with their colorful conversations about flatland and kept the crowd hyped for two days straight.

Going to one of these competitions is always motivating. The diverse styles and dedication are sure to pump anyone up!

You can check the final results of the KOG and www.kingofground.com

Pro	Expert	Novice
1. Youhei Uchino 2. Takuma Kawamura 3. Seiji Sakata 4. Yuki Maehata 5. Hideki Kawai 6. Hiroya Morizaki 7. Kotaro Tanaka 8. Hirokazu Miura 9. Shinichiro Hara 10. Yoshihiro Shinde	1. Hirokazu Miura 2. Keisuke Tanigawa 3. Akira Okamura 4. Yousuke Yamaguchi 5. Akihiro Matsuura 6. Takayuki Iwa 7. Yasunori Nakano 8. Yuki Takeuchi 9. Keiji Nakamura 10. Yorimitsu Miyata	1. Syunsuke Komatsu 2. Tasuya Fujii 3. Go Wakai 4. Kensaku Nishino 5. Kenjiro Okada 6. Daisuke Miyazaki 7. Kazuhiko Hamasaki 8. Takahiro Seki 9. Raiki Yonehara 10. Kenzo Harada