Extreme Japan

Welcome to Japan--land of extremes! A place where you will find old ladies wearing kimono and riding futuristic bullet trains. A place where rich tradition meets technological super power. A place where you will find both the neanderthalian squatting toilet and the toilet that also acts as a washer, dryer, and bum-warmer (all with a half dozen settings). Japan is basically the only country in the world with sumo wrestling, yet it is one of the most difficult countries to find large-sized clothing. Japan can be bone-chilling on the northern island of Hokkaido and horribly hot on the southern islands of Okinawa. Around every corner, Japan has a cigarette vending machine. Also, around that corner you will find many old people (Japan has the highest life expectancy of all countries; about 81 years).

Japan is also a place where you will find extreme sports. I did, last weekend. In a tiny mountain town in northern Gunma lies everything extreme--whitewater rafting, caving, spelunking, (real) mountain biking, bungee jumping, kayaking, cliff jumping, backcountry skiing and snowboarding, and some other crazy stuff that I can't remember. Some friends and I did the whitewater rafting and canyoning combo.


First, the rafting. We stretched ourselves into our wet suits and strapped on our helmets. The water was a deep, dark, cold blue. The ride was amazing...filled with several instances where I thought we were going to flip the raft. I was in the very front and taking the brunt of all the incoming ice-cold water. It was awesome!


Canyoning, for those of you who don't know (which included me up until last weekend), is simply following a river downstream through a canyon. You do this by jumping off of waterfalls, repelling down cliffs and waterfalls, and doing your best floating log imitation and zooming down chutes and rapids--you rarely get out of the water. Some of the highlights included being shot down a 18-meter waterfall, doing a straight 12-meter drop into a pool below, and going down a series of small waterfalls in succession. Needlesss to say, all of it was extremely fun.