River Fun in Japan

Summer in Japan is hot so most families look to aquatic recreation for relief.

The pools are too crowded (see previous post: Taters in the Pool).
The beaches are also crowded. They's broilers under the sun with no shade. Jellyfish, sharks, sea urchin and countless more threatening organisms lurk unseen. Riptides and undertows strike without warning. The water is salty, briny, stinky, and leaves you feeling sticky and nasty. And of the beach-going crowd, many of them tend toward the obnoxious (I'm no fan of beaches).
Water parks are expensive, stressful and again, overcrowded.
Onsen are all about hot and not exactly family recreation.
There aren't many lakes and most of them don't accommodate swimming.
Some of the shopping malls have plaza fountains which is fine until about age 5.
They'll arrest you for jumping into the canals, and you'd have to be pretty drunk to consider it in the first place.
Can you think of any other bodies of recreational water? No, not marshland or sprinklers.

Back home in Texas we'd spend many weekends out on the rivers. Locally, however the rivers are too polluted to swim in (my neighborhood river has recently been cleaned-up, yeah!) but I couldn't accept that there weren't any clean rivers here. Not finding anything overtly promoted, I made a habit of taking swimwear with me whenever we went on a drive in the mountains. After many summers of driving, we found one. After a bland morning at the Saiboku Ham village, driving through to Chichibu for a little hike, we spotted some people splashing around in the Koma river (Komagawa). We pulled over where a farmer was offering parking for 500 yen. We quickly changed into swimsuits and hit the water. It was wonderful; not too cold. It wasn't very deep in most areas, but there were some places where boys were jumping off the overpass. Lots of overhanging trees and shade. Cool breeze coming off the water. Pebble shores with plenty of good rocks to lounge against. At one point there's a salmon ladder (a series of stepped troughs and a flume to help salmon make their way up) that was good fun for people, too. Nearby grocers sold us inner tubes and anything else we needed. My wife, Mami wasn't much for the swim but wading around and relaxing on the banks she declared that it was the most relaxing, "healing" place she'd ever been to in Japan. The sound of the water, cicadas, and breeze in the trees was transportive. And in contrast to beaches, the water is crystal clean, fragrant, relatively garbage-free, uncrowded, well-shaded, and river rats (river goers, as we're called back home) are some of the friendliest folk in Japan or Texas.

OK, this is what I'd been talking about for years. But for my family to understand, they had to experience it themselves. They were hooked. We only left when the sun started going down.

Next week, Mami spent some time searching the Japanese blogs for other rivers and found one in Hanno, not far from Komagawa, the Nagurigawa. Nagurigawa is bigger and even better for an all-day excursion. Nagurigawa has several spots where even an adult can tube a bit, and some places deep enough for diving. One of the parking areas is managed by a grocery, Happy Family (Teddy Bear logo) also rents grills and will set you up all the way for riverside barbecuing.

Going to a river, here are some considerations. Bring wet socks, or water-proof sandals, or some kind of footwear that will work in the water. The stony banks and riverbeds are tough on bare feet. And walk carefully in the rivers; the rocks on the bottom are mossy and as slippery as ice. Try to walk on the areas of smaller rocks. Expect to get banged and scratched up pretty good on the rocks. It's all part of the fun.

You can get to either one by bus and train, but if you drive just head out to the river and watch for signs about parking and swimming. The key kanji to watch for is 泳川. Plenty of rivers are good for barbecue and picnics, but it's hard to find a good, clean one for swimming.

So to recap:
Komagawa in Hidaka for a few hours.
Nagurigawa in Hanno for an full day.

If you know of any others, please post them.