canyoning
I meant to get this post up a while ago, but better late than never...
Two weeks ago, I went up into the mountains of northern Gunma to go canyoning in beautiful Minakami with about 40 other ALTs. Famous as a resort town for skiing and natural hot springs, there's a lot of outdoorsy stuff going on throughout the summer and we wanted to make a trip before it got too cold.
We were supposed to do a moderately challenging course that involved an decent-sized waterfall, but our guides had been scared out of the area by a momma bear and her two cubs earlier that day. So we piled into our wetsuits and hiked up a trail to do a more laid-back course consisting mostly of natural waterslides.
I had been worried that the river water would be freezing cold, but after hiking for 30+ minutes, it was the perfect temperature. We played for a while on some of the longer slides, then slid most of the way back to the bottom of the trail... making it well worth the sweaty hike to get there.
A yummy BBQ and night out with the group rounded out the weekend.
A great weekend away from home, but still in Gunma! ...I'll count this as a step toward my goal of seeing more of my backyard this year--Kiryu, Gunma and Japan in general.
Two weeks ago, I went up into the mountains of northern Gunma to go canyoning in beautiful Minakami with about 40 other ALTs. Famous as a resort town for skiing and natural hot springs, there's a lot of outdoorsy stuff going on throughout the summer and we wanted to make a trip before it got too cold.
We were supposed to do a moderately challenging course that involved an decent-sized waterfall, but our guides had been scared out of the area by a momma bear and her two cubs earlier that day. So we piled into our wetsuits and hiked up a trail to do a more laid-back course consisting mostly of natural waterslides.
I had been worried that the river water would be freezing cold, but after hiking for 30+ minutes, it was the perfect temperature. We played for a while on some of the longer slides, then slid most of the way back to the bottom of the trail... making it well worth the sweaty hike to get there.
A yummy BBQ and night out with the group rounded out the weekend.A great weekend away from home, but still in Gunma! ...I'll count this as a step toward my goal of seeing more of my backyard this year--Kiryu, Gunma and Japan in general.
posted by Kristine at
9:40 AM
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