River Fun in Japan

Summer in Japan is hot and most families look to aquatic recreation for relief...elusive relief.

• The pools are crowded (see previous post: Taters in the Pool).
• The beaches are also crowded. What's more, they're sandy broilers under the sun with no shade. Jellyfish, sharks, sea urchin and countless more threatening organisms lurk unseen. Riptides and undertows keep parents on edge. The water is salty, briny, stinky, and leaves you feeling sticky and nasty. And of the beach-going crowd, many of them tend toward the obnoxious (I'm no fan of beaches).
• Water parks are expensive, stressful and again, overcrowded.
• Onsen are all about hot, and not exactly family recreation.
• There aren't many lakes around here, and most of them don't accommodate swimming.
• Some of the shopping malls have plaza fountains which are fine until about age five.
• They'll arrest you for jumping into the canals no matter who won the pennant, and you'd have to be pretty drunk to consider it in the first place.
• Can you think of any other bodies of recreational water? No, not marshland or sprinklers.

Back home in Texas, the mother of hot summers, we'd spend many a weekend out on the rivers. Here in Japan, however the rivers are too polluted to swim in (my neighborhood river, Kurome has recently been cleaned-up, yeah!) but I couldn't believe that there weren't any clean rivers here. Not finding anything overtly promoted, I made a habit of taking swimwear with us whenever we went on a drive in the mountains. After several summers of driving, we found one. After a bland morning at the Saiboku Ham village, driving through to Chichibu for a little hike, we spotted some people splashing around in the Koma river (Komagawa). We pulled over where a farmer was offering parking for 500 yen. We quickly changed into swimsuits and hit the water. It was wonderful; clean, clear, not too cold. It wasn't very deep in most areas, but there were some places where boys were jumping off the overpass. I would have, too but my wife wouldn't let me (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Lots of overhanging trees and shade. Cool breeze coming off the water. Pebble shores with plenty of bigger rocks to lounge against. In one place there's a salmon ladder (a series of stepped troughs and a flume to help salmon make their way upstream) that was good fun for people, too. Nearby grocers sold us inner tubes and anything else we needed. My wife, Mami wasn't much for the swim but after wading around and relaxing on the banks she declared that it was the most relaxing, "healing" place she'd ever been to in Japan. The sound of the water, cicadas, and breeze in the trees was transportive. And in contrast to beaches, the water is crystal clean, fragrant, relatively garbage-free, uncrowded, well-shaded, and river rats (river goers, as we're called back home) are some of the friendliest folk in Japan or Texas. I'd like to repeat: uncrowded. Even on a scorching afternoon, the fellow river rats were few and far between. Why? I don't know. But I'm reticent to over-promote these little bits of paradise.

Tubing down a salmon flume.

This is what I'd been talking about to my family for years. But for them to understand, they had to experience it themselves. They were hooked. We only left when the sun started going down.

Next week, Mami spent some time searching the Japanese blogs for other rivers and found another one nearby in Hanno, the Naguri river (nagurigawa). Nagurigawa is bigger and even better for an all-day excursion. Nagurigawa has several spots where even an adult can tube a bit, and some places deep enough for bridge diving. One of the parking areas is managed by a grocery, Happy Family (Teddy Bear logo) which also rents grills and will set you up 100% for riverside barbecuing.

grilling up some yakisoba

Going to a river, here are some considerations. Bring wet socks, or water-proof sandals, or some kind of footwear that will work in the water. The stony banks and riverbeds are tough on bare feet. And walk carefully in the rivers; the rocks on the bottom are mossy and as slippery as ice. Try to walk on the areas of smaller rocks. Expect to get banged and scratched up pretty good on the rocks. It's all part of the fun. Boogie boards and small rafts work well, too. If you barbecue near the river, you can ring-off a bit of river with larger stones to keep your food and drinks (and toddlers) cool. Also, don't take rocks from the rivers home until after O-bon; apparently they'll carry evil spirits.

Running aground on some falls.

You can get to either of these rivers by bus and train, but if you drive just head out to the river and watch for signs about parking and swimming. The key kanji to watch for is 川泳び. Plenty of rivers are good for barbecue and picnics, but it's hard to find a good, clean one for swimming.

Look for signs like this

So to recap:
Komagawa in Hidaka for a few hours.
Nagurigawa in Hanno for an full day.

Our search continues.

If you know of any others, please post them.