Sometime canyons can be long dark adventures or a quick escapade but then there are times when you get a special and unique canyon that is a full day of sliding paradise in crystal clear water.
Nishizawa canyon, is only available at certain times of the year due to local access restrictions in place allowing authorised canyoners permission to go down. If you’re in Japan at the right time of the year we highly recommend that you join this tour for a once in a lifetime experience.
The day starts off at early morning in one of the small parking areas which are dotted through out the Japanese mountain side to get everyone ready for a 90 minute walk to the start of the course. The walk in is fairly easy as the canyon has a ready made trail along the edge due to some of the waterfalls being a major tourist spot hence the access restrictions.
As we are in the end of September, the water is starting to get quite cold and the start of the 4 hour course is 3 successive waterfalls of consecutive height of approximately 50 meters. Super smooth stone make the sliders so quick and easy. The final large waterfall is usually a full 20 meter slider but due to recent weather and movements of underlaying rocks it now becomes a full jumper.
After a brief lunch it’s a continuation on down the course weaving in and off the trail. The tourists are all hanging around watching a people slip into the canyon and slide and jump off the waterfalls.
The canyon has so many waterfalls along its path that you can nearly slide or jump every single one of them.
Thanks to Canyons Minakami and the participants for allowing us to join their tour and photograph the journey.
