Rafting in Hokkaido

The weather in Texas has been so scorching hot it made me miss cooler weather, and I suddenly thought of our rafting tour in Hokkaido!

The rafting tour was one of the highlights of our Hokkaido trip, which we went on shortly before we came to Texas.

Even though the temperatures on land were close to 30°C, the waters were only about 15°C! Sounds like a welcoming temperature when I think about it now, but actually it was pretty cold when we were there!

Anyways, I’m jumping ahead. Let me start from the beginning…

We started on the Shiisorapuchi River シーソラプチ川 which will later join to the Sorachi River 空知川. Many names in Hokkaido are derived from the Ainu language – Ainu are indigenous people of Japan (Hokkaido) and Russia (Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands) – Shiisorapuchi is one such name!

I didn’t know when we were on the raft, but when looking through the photos later, I realized that the guide at the back is quite hilarious! His poses are all very exaggerated and crazy lol. You can see some of it above.

I think this is the only photo in the entire CD that shows us paddling! I thought we’ll be doing a lot more paddling, but it’s always paddle 3 strokes, stop. Then the guide or the water current does the rest of the work. Super relaxed can? LOL.

After making another drop, the guide asked us if we wanted to turn around and go towards the drop that we just came from. We were like, “Huh? What do you mean? OK!”

Don’t know what he’s talking about, but just say ok first. Find out later. Haha.

We were going against the current, and you can see the force and amount of water flooding the front pushed the raft under the water, while the back is entirely lifted off!

We stayed in this position for a good minute or two!

Are you baffled why we could remain in that position and not get pushed along downstream even though the water was pummeling against the raft? We did too. The guide explained to us, and I would explain it, but I’m too lazy. I’ll just keep you guessing! :D

After this, the guide asked us if we wanted to jump, and we said YES!

Rule to having 100% of the experience: Just say yes to everything, even if you don’t exactly know what it entails.

After a bit more, we wrapped up our 40-min rafting course!

Played for a bit in the water and learned how to skip stones. The guide is a genius stone skipper. He skipped the stone all the way to the opposite bank!!!

Ended off the day with some photos:

All of us really enjoyed rafting in Hokkaido and I highly recommend it! We were still talking about it long after the rafting tour was over lol.

I also really like that they helped us to photograph our entire adventure, from start to end! We had to pay 2,000 yen for the photo CD, but it’s definitely worth it!

The company that we went with is:

Furano Alpine Visitor Center

Website: http://www.alpn.co.jp/english

They also have many other activities, whether it’s summer or winter (snow mobiles are super fun! And ice-hole fishing, anyone?)