Rafting with the Power Rangers

The Oshimatsu gang: (L to R) Michelle, Brandon, me, and Kyle :)

The reservations had been set, tickets purchased, and I had (by some miracle) managed to reverse my car onto the ferry that would take us to Mitsuhama Port in Matsuyama, Shikoku. The short weekend getaway came at the perfect time, and the Oshimatsu gang was ready for some white water rafting excellence. After about an hour ferry ride and a 2 hour car ride full of 90s hits, we found ourselves in a quiet, super inaka (countryside) town called Otoyo at around 10:30pm. We met the owner of the rafting company, a cool Aussie named Mark, who then loaded us up into his tiny Japanese pickup truck and drove us to our hostel. The hostel had a worn-down, old log cabin feel to it. Our futons had already been laid out on the tatami floor. It felt like we were high school kids who had just been dropped off by Mom and Dad for an unsupervised weekend :D I could barely close my eyes from all my excitement, but somehow managed to drift into a deep sleep...

We woke up bright and early, grabbed some food from a local market, and met up with the other rafters at the Happy Raft office. It was a special day for rafting, geared towards veterans who had rafted with the company many times before. In the spirit of Halloween, many people were dressed up, including our rafting guides, the POWER RANGERS! :)

"Oh, Japan..."

I got to sit in the VERY front! AHH!

Emergency contacts were exchanged, safety waivers signed, and before you knew it, we were geared up and loaded onto a bus for Yoshino River. We met our rafting guide, Gordon aka. the Green Ranger w/dreds, who gave us a safety shpeel before getting us into the raft. The water was FREEZING. Like Jack-Dawson-floating-in-the-Atlantic-Ocean FREEZING. It was quite beautiful though. A lady I met in an onsen told me that the rocks on the river floor have a blue tinge to them, making the crisp, clear water appear even more blue.

The next 4 hours rafting down a 9km segment of the Yoshino River can only be descibed as "bizarre". IT. WAS. AWESOME. Guides would randomly pick up and throw rafters into the blistering cold water, creating chaos amongst the boat. No one was safe. Just as you were helping a fellow raftmate back into the boat, you yourself would either be pushed or pulled in! The Blue Ranger was dropkicking people off of their rafts, people were splashing each other with their paddles, and the Scream Ghost was doing backflips off the edge of the boat. Incredible. At times I needed to take a step back and breath just to process the craziness before me.

The rafting itself was both exciting and terrifying. Since we had come the 2nd to the last week of rafting season, the water level was lower than usual, exposing many rocks and affecting the water flow around certain areas of the river. On some of the higher grade rapids (level 4), the current was super strong and our boat seemed to be almost vertical at times. Despite the playful mannerisms of the rafting crew, when things needed to be taken seriously, they were superbly professional, making me feel safe 100% of the time. At one point, a rafting crew got stuck amongst the rocks and current. It was cool to see the other guides band together to help them out. (What was even COOLER was that they were dressed as Power Rangers, there to save the day!)

Battling one of the grade 4 rapids.

We all survived the adventure and concluded the day with a delicious bagel sandwich buffet and a nice onsen bath. The crew was kind enough to invite us to a party at one of the guide's house for dinner and drinks. We partied the night away; meeting fellow rafters, learning about the area through broken Japanese/English, feeding dogs, eating crocodile and kangaroo BBQ, watching people fool around in their Halloween costumes, and enjoying the beautiful scenery of Tokushima.

Success! We made it through! Thank you Green Ranger! :D

I wish I could have stayed in that moment forever. It will definitely be a highlight during my stay in Japan :)