Splashing and Spluttering: Experiencing White Water Rafting😃

 In this blog, I am going to write on one of my favourite outdoor activities, "White Water Rafting".

White water rafting takes place on a river which has fast flowing water(rapids) and huge rocks. Sitting on a raft with each person holding an paddle, we have to navigate our way through the rocks and occasionally, have to steer away from a mini whirlpool!! As each raft consists about six people and a guide, team-work and alertness is need for safely paddling to the end point.

When my parents broke out the news that they had booked White Water Rafting for the three of us, I was overjoyed as I had heard how fun and amazing it is. We were going to raft on the Tama river in a town named Mitake in the Chichibu area. Mitake is located on the west of the Tokyo Prefecture and is two and a half hours away from my home.

We commenced our journey early in the morning and reached Mitake station at 9 am. As we were walking towards our rafting point, we had to cross a bridge over the Tama river itself!! When I had my first look at the Tama river and it's surroundings, I stared in awe and my jaw dropped in wonderment!!



The benign and splendid Tama river, blended in with the lush green trees in the background was simply superlative. To put the icing on the cake, I was going to raft bang on the center of this unbelievable place. Dreaming on these thoughts, we reached our rafting point. We changed into our rafting gear which consists of a helmet, a paddle, a bathing suit and a life jacket. To my surprise, there were many guides from Nepal; and some of them could speak really good Japanese. Our guide, Mr. Akash, hailing from Nepal, travels to Japan every summer for rafting. He will be back to Nepal and will continue rafting in the rivers of the great Himalayas. He briefed us on the safety precautions and on the many activities in store for us during our 4.3 kilometer rafting course. Finally at 10:30 A.M, we walked down to the Tama river and we boarded our raft along with three others.

As we were boarding the raft, thoughts such as: what if I fall out of the raft, appeared in my mind. However as our raft switched onto top gear pushed by the powerful flow of the river, such pessimist thoughts vanished from my head. The thrill and enjoyment rafting gave me is simply beyond words. Vigorously paddling amidst the frothy white water and towering dark rocks was delectable. After two kilometers or so, our guide stopped the raft(on shallow water) and we got down eagerly waiting for the activities to begin...

We started of on an fun note as we did a few back flips into the river. Then, we formed a human chain and thinking of ourselves merging into the Tama river, we flowed along with it for a few meters!! After becoming human Tama rivers, we did my favourite activity: standing under a mini waterfall!! My parents and I slowly made our way to the powerful waterfall and posed for photos standing closer to it with a distance of less than a fingernail's length😎😎

After these interesting activities, we hopped on to our raft to complete the rest of our course. As we paddling vigorously, we suddenly came upon a mini whirlpool. Our raft was sucked into it and in a flash, we were pushed out and believe it or not, our raft flew for a second before landing back on the water with a thump. Blown away(literally😂😂) by this experience, we headed for the main attraction of this white water rafting course, "The Jumping Point".

The Jumping point is a humongous rock overlooking the river from which we could jump of and plunge into the water!! I was eager on jumping from the rock and hence joined the line for it. When it was my turn, I slowly stepped forward. Though I was a little nervous, I took a deep breath and jumped with a huge splash into the Tama river. For a second or two, I was under the water; after that, I resurfaced and was automatically pushed by the flow of the river to a guide who pulled me up. Exhilarated and intoxicated, I climbed back onto the raft and everybody followed suit. After a few minutes of focused paddling, we completed our course.

As it was 1: 00 in the afternoon, we headed out to a traditional "Soba" restaurant, which was recommended by our guide,. Soba is a traditional Japanese noodles which is made from buckwheat and is thin and long in size. It is generally served either chilled with a dipping sauce or hot with a noodle soup and has many varieties. I tried the Tempura Soba which is a hot soba served alongside tempura which is deep fried shrimp. My tempura soba was very delicious and led me to fall in love with this traditional Japanese food item.

 After an mesmerizing one and a half hour of rafting and a lip-smacking lunch, we returned back home.

White water rafting is an activity which is truly out of this world. If you have an opportunity to do rafting yourself, please take it as it will be an experience, you will look back to during your entire life😃😃