Canyoning and Rafting

This weekend a group of us ALTS from Iwaki (John and Meiko, Nina and Sean, Liz, Juan and Logan) and I went to Minakami in Gunma Prefecture to go canyoning and rafting. What's canyoning you ask? Read on and you shall find out!

Early Sat morn the group of us packed into John and Meikos cars. We didn't take the expressway so it was a short (cough cough) 8 hour ride to our destination, Canyons! Saturday we hit a local Onsen and spent the night at a ski resort (pension in Japanese) called La Neige. It was a resort with tatami mat rooms and onsens as showers/baths. We had one of the best meals I've had so far in Japan (caesar salad, scallops and cheese and steak...mmmmm)and played Jenga. We got a good nights rest for our big adventure on SUN!

Sunday was our day of crazy FUN! We started off with a few hours of canyoning. Canyoning is when you coast down rivers and slide over waterfalls. This was the highlight of my day. We were decked out in super thick wetsuits(1 cm), helmets, and bum pads to protect our backsides from rocks. The first waterfall was 20 meters. They hung us over this one on a rope then let us free fall down the falls into the open water below. I was one of the first so I got to watch most of my group go. Logan ended up twisting around and going down the waterfall with his face against the rock. It was soo fun but it was just the beginning.

The next tasks included sliding down a waterfall headfirst, climbing up and jumping off cliffs, and walking across a small waterfall. All this was followed by a BBQ back at Canyons. To top it off the people running this were mostly hilarious Australians and Kiwis.

White water rafting was okay too. Liz had difficulties staying in the raft which was hilarious. Juan pulled out his steller impression of a dog for the second time in 24 hours and kept us entertained. Our guide would sometimes forget we were all foreigners and start shouting instructions in Japanese and a combination of both " HAI MIGI...HAI STOP!!". We all agreed that rafting was "good crack" (How was my attempt at Irish lingo Liz??)

Anyhoo, we all had a blast and hope to go back next year to spend a day canyoning and a night partying with the folk from down under.

"ichi(1), ni(2), ichi, ni...HAI STOP!"