Teresa and I signed up for a trip thru the base MWR trip to take a white water rafting trip. We went to a place called Tonegawa, which was north west of Tokyo about 100 miles. The trip started up high in the mountains, and even tho it was late June, there was still snow on the mountain tops nearby. Our guide here on the left is called "Rhu" which means "Dragon". During the winter he is a ski instructor.
The Tonegawa River has class 3 and class 4 rapids. It was Teresas first time rafting ever, and the first time for me in years. We had a great time. It was raining in Tokyo when we left, but the weather up in the mountains was bright and sunny.
I'll just let some of the photos speak for themselves!
 
I love the look on Teresa's face as we go down the damn's spillway!
It was a great couple of hours. Teresa liked it so much, we signed up for the next trip for rafting, in two weeks from that day!
We recently took a road trip with our friends Ralph and Yuki up into the mountains south of Tokyo a few hours. Ralph and Yuki had stayed at some of the cabins earlier that year. They also have a pet schnauser named "Mimi".
The trip was alot of fun, and we drove high into the mountains. We then took a ski lift up the side of the mountain to get a good look around. The entire valley area is a popular getaway location, and is very pet friendly.
Here is a group shot of all of us at a nice outdoor dog run area. Sadly, it kept trying to rain on us that day.
Here is a shot of Sisko. I did pose him on the chair, but he always takes just the coolest pictures.
Here is Yuki, Ralph and Mimi as we go up the ski lift to get a mountain top view of the valley.
Of course after we were up there a little while the rain started to pour down. The lift people were really nice and gave us some rain covers to wear while we went back down.
We then stopped for lunch at a pet friendly restruant. The food was good, but what was extra nice was they had special areas for you and your pets to eat in the same place.
Sisko was a huge hit with the restraunt staff of course...and I spotted this really interesting dragon bench that I asked him to sit on for a picture.
Here is a group shof of the second rafting trip. Again it was rainy as we left Tokyo, but bright and sunny when we got up to the top. Both trips were thru a company called "Canyons". www.canyons.jp
Our guide this time was a gentleman from New Zeland called James.
There had been heavy rains in the mountains for the past few days, and the guides said the river was perfect with extra strong rapids. About the best they had seen that season...or so they said!
 
 
It was tremendous fun...and I think that Teresa has found a new hobby! I know we will try very hard to go rafting more often, and wherever we go in the world!