| Last month, a group of really awesome people went to Japan to do some
whitewater kayaking. After arriving in Tokyo and being picked up by
our local guide and friend Yoshi, we took off for twelve days of boating . It was an amazing combination of both whitewater and
an immersion into Japanese culture. To share that with you, here is a list of my top ten favorite/ most memorable things about kayaking in Japan. |
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| Really awesome people who kayak in Japan |
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| 1) Silly Cartoon Signs: They just love silly cartoon characters in Japan and manage to work them into pretty much everything. |
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| "Puppies and kittens cry when left in boxes?" |
2) Onsens (aka Hot Springs): Just about no matter where you
are in Japan, there is an onsen near by, or at least that's how it felt
to us. We finished up pretty much everyday of kayaking with a dip in
some naturally hot water. One of the best parts was that at most onsens there were showers, so even though we were dirtbag camping, we
still got shower everyday.
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Relaxing in one of many onsens we experienced
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| Every town should have a foot onsen in the middle of it! |
3) Not Knowing What You're Eating: It
might sound a bit scary, but its pretty fun to go to a place and order
something off of a menu having no idea what it is you're going to get.
Sometimes it turns out great, like when you pick the right rice ball at
the seven-eleven, other times, well, you find yourself with a raw egg
and a stick of butter or pickled fermented soybeans. Either way, the
food was amazing and an experience all on its own.
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| Rok and I enjoying bowls of random mountain vegetables (Photo: David Maurier) |
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| Lots of goodies to go with Udon noodles |
4) Hiding Yoshi from the Japanese: Turns out when you're the one Japanese person traveling with a bunch of geigens (tourists) in Japan, you're the person that everyone wants to question about what it is you're doing. In order avoid Yoshi having to deal with this, whenever a Japenese person came up to ask us something, we immediately tried hide him or referred to him as "Max," our Japanese-American friend who spoke no Japanese. This way, the person would get sick of trying to speak Japenese to the geigens and eventually just move on.
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| Yoshi hiding out behind the van while the dam officials try to tell us we can't put on (Photo: David Maurier) |
5) Rice Paddies: A staple in Japan, rice paddies can be seen in just about any open space of land. I found them to be a beautiful addition to an already amazing landscape.
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| Driving through the rice paddies |
6) Hanging with the Ladies: This was one of my first kayaking trips where we had almost as many females as males and it was super refreshing. There was girl talk in the onsens, silly moments waiting for shuttles and psyching each other up for running rapids. Thanks ladies!
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| Shannamar, Diane and I enjoying a day on the river together (Photo: Darin McQuoid) |
7) Gear Explosions: When we took off the river, regardless of whether we were in the middle of no where, the middle of the road or the middle of a city, we pretty exploded our gear everywhere. It was entertaining to see just how much we could take over a space with all our boats and gear and interesting to see how no one in Japan seemed to really mind.
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| Gear explosion at Nakatsu Gawa takeout |
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| Gear explosion at the Shima Gawa parking lot |
8) The Scary Waterfall Portage: This one definitely falls into the "memorable" category rather than the "favorite" category. On the lower Zako Gawa, we arrived at a marginal 40 foot waterfall. Darin and Rok fired it up, but the rest of the group opted to throw our boats and portage it instead. The portage involved walking high on a very steep cliff side with only dirt and roots to hang onto. I would venture to say it was the scariest thing I have ever done, seriously. If one root had given way, you would have fallen 100 feet to your death. After having done the portage, I think next time I'd probably just run the waterfall.
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| Davids boat running the waterfall (what you cant see from here is that immediately after landing into a fairly green pool the river goes right into an undercut) |
9) Snow Bridges: Kayaking through a snow bridge was one of the more memorable things I've ever done in a kayak. We knew when going to the Kiyotsu Gawa that there was a potential for snow bridges and took the risk that we would either be able to paddle through them or portage them. In the end, we encountered five total, one we portaged and four we were able to paddle through. The thought of being under or on a bridge when it collapsed kept us moving swiftly through and over the them. If you're interested in knowing what it was like to go through the snow cave, check out my unedited go pro footage of it here
Snow Bridge Video.
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| The first snow bridge we encountered and the one we had to portage because we couldn't see the exit |
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| Waiting in anticipation at the exit of a snow bridge (Photo: Daniel Brausell) |
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David emerging from a shorter snow bridge- fun/scary fact: when we did this run again three days later this snow bridge was no longer there (Photo: Daniel Brausell)
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10) Beautiful gorges and aesthetic rapids: One
thing that we all agreed on after the trip was that hands down, Japan
has the most consistently beautiful rivers than any other place we've
been. I swear every river we paddled had a gorged in section with beautiful canyon walls lush with vegetation. And not only were they aesthetic, but they were also really fun to kayak.
