The trip was called "Kumagawa Boat Ride and Cave Trip" or something to that general effect. The night before the trip, I was looking over the itinerary for the first time in a serious sort of way to make sure I was bringing what was necessary and that I'd be to the bus on time. I noticed two things I hadn't caught before. The first was the advice "bring an extra change of clothes in case you get wet" the second was, next to the boat trip time "rapids cannot be guaranteed."
"Interesting," I thought, "I wonder what we got ourselves into here?"
So the day of the trip arrived and we made the four hour trip to Kumagawa. On the way up, we took a stretch of road that had tunnels after tunnels after tunnels, including one that was six km long. I don't know what Kuma means, but Gawa (or Kawa) is river. The river was lovely. The pictures of previous trips at the starting point for the trip were not-so-lovely. They showed a wooden boat full of people with one person on each end steering it through rapids on a river. The river looked like the kind you'd normally go down, after signing away your life, in a rubber raft with your own oar and wearing a swimsuit. Mel and I began to really wonder if we were up for this, but it was too late to turn back now.
The boats themselves were like enourmous canoes. They fit ten Americans and two Japanese folks into ours. Mel took pictures, so I'm hoping to be able to post some later. Before the ride started, we asked our MWR guide if there were rapids on this particular day. She said yes. We thought darn. Then she assured us that we were on the "Calm Course." That was actually reassuring.
In our boat, one guide stood at the front and basically did nothing for most of the trip. He had an oar, but I guess it was only for steering, and we didn't need it. The guy in the back, though, had a full body workout. He had one oar that was balanced on a peg in the back and he swayed it back and forth using his whole body to get it to go. A loudspeaker attached to the back of the boat spouted information in Japanese the whole way. There were a lot of numbers, but I have no idea what else. Occasionally, it would pump out an a capella song, and the two Japanese people in our boat sang along with many of these quietly to themselves, so I guess they must have been common songs, may be about the river?
The trip itself was not nearly as scary as the pictures. Most of the ride was calm and gentle, as promised. There were a few speedy, rapid-like places, but not many. So it was a lovely ride. At the end, there were more pictures, and some of them had the rubber rafts we're more used to, so may be some time if we're ambitious, Zack and I could go back and do some white water rafting there.
The cave part of the trip had it's own potential drama to offer, too. The outside of the entrance was painted with lots and lots of bats. Since bats aren't my favorite animals at the moment, I was not excited about that, either, but once inside, none were to be found. Our guide told me on the way out that normally there are lots, and she had no idea where they had gone. I guess they knew I was coming.
The cave itself was pretty big with a stream running through it. In places, it was actually raining inside. We took a path through it that had occasional signs, also all in Japanese, so it wasn't very educational, but pretty to look at. Again, hopefully Mel will send me her pictures.
Then it was back on the bus and home again and off to bed in preparation for Sunday...
It's been a busy week, so I'm trying to catch up as I have time. Sunday's adventures will be coming soon...
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