HOA

Hokkaido Outdoor Adventure

If and when you visit Hokkaido, and if you visit in the summer months, I strongly recommend you go rafting and/or canyoning. And I strongly recommend going with HOA!!

HOA is located in the mountains of Hidaka. The company is based in an old wooden elementary school. It's been redocorated with Tibetan prayer flags, pictures of rafting/kayaking from around the world, and the rooms have been converted into a lounge, smoking bar, communal kitchen and a few classrooms are used as hostel-like dorms!

The staff is from Australia, Japan and Nepal. And they have a ton of experience between them including first descents down some spectacular rivers! They have videos and slide shows have some of the crazy shit they've done!

Hokkaido hasn't gotten much rain this year so the rivers are running pretty low by now. And the only river they were running is a half day trip. To get a full day in, we decided to do canyoning in the morning and rafting in the afternoon. I'd never done canyoning before, but it's great! We wore wet suits, life jackets and helmets. Basically, we floated, swam, and walked down a canyon with an icy cold river! We also got to do some cliff jumping...my first time! Wow! FUN!!

Rafting was great too! We went down the Mukawa River. Lots of rocks, lots of narrow spaces and the water was pretty low. So it made for some interesting navigating! But there were some flat spots where we got to play around. And our guide, Pat, did some crazy fun stuff with the raft. We spun, we flipped, we surfed, and we got really wet!!! Also did another cliff jump...maybe 4-5m.

I could go rafting everyday! Seriously, I don't think I'd get bored of it!