Summer holiday 2009: Day 3

After hopping in the Onsen the first thing in the morning and a buffet style breakfast, we left the hotel at 8:30. The main attraction for the day was to travel to Niseko for whitewater rafting as a family but in the morning we were going to Shikotsuko which boasts one of the few lakes in Japan with clear water. The weather was great so we could not miss the Shikotsuko sightseeing on a tourist boat.

It was about an hour drive to Shikotsuko and it was really a smooth drive on the roads without traffic jams in Hokkaido. When we got there, we went straight to the tourist boat ticket office. Checking about this beforehand, I knew each boat leaves every half an hour. I had to buy the tickets so that we did not have to wait too long. If we had to wait there, we might not be in time for the water rafting at Niseko and we would have to give up the idea of going on the boat. At the ticket office, while some visitors were taking time to buy theirs, I bought 4 and this was a success! We were the last to get on the next boat.

Shikotsuko is famous for the water clarity. To see the bottom of the lake, the boat had a glass bottom. Looking through it, I saw some fresh water fish such as rainbow trout swimming slowly in the cobalt blue water. Getting off the boat, we saw incredibly blue sky above us and similarly blue water on the lake; we felt “Yes, we are in Hokkaido!” We felt great. It was a half an hour ride on the boat but we felt it was shorter because we enjoyed the scenery so much.

For the water rafting in the afternoon, we had an appointment to meet a staff from the adventure company first. We did not have much time and although I thought it was shame finishing our sightseeing of Shikotsuko just after the boat ride, we got back in the car and headed off to the next destination.

Having mushroom soup for lunch on the way, we got there 10 minutes early after exactly a 2 hour drive. There was a young Japanese man waiting for us with rubber boats on top of a dark blue Toyota Hi-ace. (We then found out that he was the company director.) At the same time, two couples from Sapporo arrived and joined us. It was about a 15 minute drive to the bank of the Shiribetsu River. (Until the year 2007, Shiribetsu was ranked as the country’s best limpid water and still a class A river with great water quality. ) There was a tent already set up for us and another staff member was waiting. We changed into wetsuits and life jackets there. Although it is not that hot in Hokkaido in summer, after putting a wetsuit on, I felt sweat shooting out of my body. Looking at us, the staff member yelled “Let’s go! Jump in the water!” and started running towards the river with everyone hand in hand. I do not think my children had ever jumped into a river like this, but they did not hesitate. They looked happy in the cold water of the Shiribetsu River. This spot was going to be the end of the rafting. So we all got in his Hi-ace and drove to the starting point.

At the starting point, we met more families from different agents. There were a numbers of non-Japanese instructors, most of them were Australians but there was a Nepalese instructor who cultivated his skill in the Himalayas. I remembered watching TV when they were saying that Niseko has so many tourists from Australia coming for its powdery snow. Some of them then fall in love with the natural beauty of Niseko and decide to live there and set up companies selling resort villas. Checking it later, I found that there are some water rafting companies whose directors are Australians. No wonder there were so many non-Japanese staff there.

After a lecture of all the notabilia and how to control the boat at the starting point, we were off in the river. Our family were on an 8-person boat and the couples were in 2 different 2-person boats. On our boat, we had a staff member with us so we had to row as instructed but the people on the 2-people boats, although another staff member (the director) was following them on a separate boat, had to row by their own judgement. So it was full of thrills but they were struggling when their boats went on rocks and falling out of the boats in the rapids. The amount of water in summer is stable and was good for beginner rafters like ourselves. River Shiribetsu runs around a beautiful mountain called Yoteisan, which looks like Mt Fuji; we enjoyed the great scenery of the mountain and the river at the same time. However, we could not always watch the scenery: at the points where two rivers met and curved, the stream got very strong. It was quite scary. The staff member who was with us hit rocks intentionally and put the raft upright so that we all thought we were going to be thrown out, my children were having a great time. Half way through, we had to jump off a 3 metre high rock, something we cannot normally do. Because of these sideshow acts and happenings, we got to the final point after 2 hours and 15 minutes, way over the planned time of 1.5 hours.

After getting back into our own clothes, the director handed me a CD. He was taking photos of us on the raft with his digital camera while he was following us closely and put the data on the CD. There were about 150 photos. It was a great souvenir for our family.

For your reference, I will write the link to the adventure company we used this time. For half a day course for 4 people family, it was \16,800 including hiring wetsuits, helmets and life jackets and a photo CD. There are many different companies providing similar services but not always including the wetsuit hire, a photo CD and they are more expensive. They usually tie up with travel agents and hotels, they usually have more people and their services are more mechanical. On the other hand, this company only has 2 to 3 members but they were all friendly and entertained us depending on our experience level. I really recommend them. If you visit Niseko, try them!

NISEKO WHITEWATER COMPANY
http://niseko-ukka.com/wear.html



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