I was talking to a guy up in Nagano city about how we spend our weekend. He described it best by saying we get full value out of them. I couldn’t agree more. I cannot believe how much has happened over the course of one weekend. We started off after work with friends Dave, Jennifer and Dec arriving in Shiojiri around 7. We got dinner and drinks at the Nobo Grovey Kitchen and then threw our camping supplies into the car. With the tunes raging, we blasted off to Gunma prefecture to the north east of Nagano prefecture. Thanks to Jen for doing all the driving. It took about four hours to get up there on the express way. Somehow we managed to run out of gas just as we were pulling into Minakami, our destination. So we pitched the tent beside the 7/11 and had a not overly comfortable nights sleep beside the river. All told we probably didn’t sleep for more than a few hours and got up with the sun feeling a little battered. The gas stations had opened again in the morning and we fueled up and headed across town. We met up with the other half of the Kiso valley people when we arrived there. They had waited until the morning to drive up. That added Lauren, Felice (Lauren’s friend visiting from the states) and Hiato, a PE teacher from Lauren’s junior high.
We arrived at the centre called Canyons and got our gear on. It took the girls a long time to get on our wet suits. We were all wondering exactly how we would get them off later. We drove to the beginning of the canyoning course called Fox Canyon. I hadn’t heard of canyoning before I was invited in Wednesday. Basically, you use your body to slide down the waterfalls and the rapids of the canyon. I was pretty scared at the beginning but they told us to try and push our limits beyond what we would normally fell comfortable with. The first big drop we went over about 20 metres high. The guides clip a rope onto your life jacket and then lower you down about two meters. Then they release the rope and I start screaming. The second scariest one was probably the rocky out cropping we jumped off of. It was a scary thing to see people dropping very close to the rocks! We went down the rapids and falls feet first and then head first. I was afraid to go head first but you actually went into the water more smoothly I felt. The course was only about 300 metres long but it took us 2 or 3 hours to get through it. Everyone cheered for each other and it was a lot of fun. We went through with a group of about 8 Japanese people and a few other foreigners from Fukoshima prefecture. The Japanese girls in our group showed no fear! There was maybe only one or two who got freaked out by the jumps but they still did them all. When we got out of the canyon and thoroughly high fived each other, we headed back to the base camp. I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t noon yet! It felt like a whole days activities in jus that morning. For lunch we had a great mix of Japanese and BBQ. There were even ribs which I couldn’t believe! That is the one meat product that I miss the most here. We chilled out for a while and looked at the pictures that the guides took of us. Unfortunately it was a little hard to tell who was who because there were a lot of distance and action shots. Felice and I couldn’t tell each other apart which is ridiculous considering she is taller than me by quite a bit and built like a Japanese woman. After a bit of chill time we changed our gear and left for rafting. I am pretty inexperienced with this kind of trip as well but was really looking forward to it after the mornings events. The instructions on the bus we all in Japanese but then they did an English follow up at the rivier side. Our guides name was Damon, a New Zealander and our emergency kayaker was an Irish guy named Sean. He had only been in Japan for two weeks. He had the works for left, right, swim, kick etc, taped to the top of his kayak which was great. Heavily accented Japanese is great to listen too. I love it! I don’t know if you can imagine Japanese being spoken with a thick Irish accent but it is something else. I had a hard time understanding that guy in English when I first met him. I had to look at his mouth the whole time he was speaking. The first thing we noticed was that the water in this river was fed by mountain snow melt. It was a little chilly to say the least. For some reason we were wearing only one wet suit this time too. Sean found a giant frog on the river side and brought it out to our raft. It was so cool. Unfortunately after the next rapids the frog was missing. We got out and swam for a while and then struggled to pull each other back into the raft. We stopped off at some rocky outcroppings and jumped off of them from different heights. I only did the five metre jump but you could go higher. After we jumped in we realized that we just got swept away by the current. Eventually a Japanese group pulled me out of the current towards their boat. Along both sides of the canyon were abandoned hotels. This was once a booming town where the emporer came to stay in the summers but now it is quite run down and the town has done nothing to stop that from happening. The buildings looked so industrial and terrible. One big hotel had just been abandoned. Our guide told us is was extremely scary to go in their at night because the whole place had just been walked away from. We made a mental note to got there later after a few drinks.

After rafting we had some beer and then went to a great Italian restaurant. We had a few more drinks and the best pizza I have had in Japan ever. Then we headed off to set up the tent on a new and more comfortable camp site at a different point along the river. Jen has allergy issues so we went out in search of medication for her. While she was looking in the stores we had a kick around with the soccer ball in the parking lot. It was really fun. I haven’t played soccer for a while. A man came out of his house to stand in his driveway and watch us for a while. We wanted to play a little more but I missed a pass and the ball went in the river. Dec fell in trying to get it. It was dark by then so I was a little freaked out when he went in. Because we had just rafted down this river I knew that the current was strong. With the soccer ball lost, we headed off to a party that we had been told was going on by the other rafters. They were having a bit of a BBQ so we brought some drinks and hung out with them for a bit.

After a few more drinks the four of us decided to check the out the scary hotel we had been told about. We got in through the staff kitchen entrance. They were right about the place. It was extremely creepy. Everything had just been left. The personal effects of employees were still there. The kitchen was of dishes, the rooms had all the furniture left in them. There were rooms set up for karaoke with books places out on the tables. It looked like people could have stayed there the night before but no one had stayed their for years. Clearly people frequently went into the place and poked around like we were but not guests. I was holding Dave’s arm in a death grip the whole time. I was pretty sure we were going to be killed by zombies at any moment. After the worlds scariest hotel we went out to an izakaiya for a little late night chicken kurage and shochu. Shochu it like a kind of Japanese vodka that we had mixed with oolong tea. Jen headed back early because she hadn’t been drinking (designated driver) and was probably a little sick of Dave Dec and I trying to sing different rap songs in a cannon. We stayed out for another hour or so and then walked back to the camp and crashed. Dave kindly helped me work out the train time table for the next day.
So that is a day and half of events. These pictures are of the Fox Canyon Course that we did but they are not us. They are other Japanese people. The rafting pictures will be up soon. I will update with the rest of the weekend tomorrow. Do you see what I mean about full value for the weekends?