Adventures in Gunma

Hey Susie did I tell you that a couple of weeks ago I made a trip out to Gunma?? I thought about you the entire time I was there...Do you know what I was thinking? "How in the world did she live here for TWO YEARS!!" hahaha just kidding, though I thought Iwaki was country, but Gunma, cho inaka ne???? We had dinner in Maebashi, then headed up to a lodge in Minakami to go river rafting. My old co-worker, Chris is now living in Kiryu so we all met up. It was so much fun! I want to go back already!


Jo, Lana, and Karim suckin down the soba while we were jumping trains :)

"Eat, eat, eat!! The train is leaving!!"

We were so tired of jumping trains...I think we had to switch trains like 5 times that day!

Drinking at the cute little bar at our lodge in Minakami

Bunk up!! Our room was the cutest with 3 bunk-beds and tatami mat floors. We felt like we were at camp in elementary school!

What's so funny La?

Lana had heard through a friend that you could go paragliding in Gunma. So I called Chris (who is living in Gunma now), and asked if he had heard anything, so he gave me the contact information about this tour company called Canyons. I booked a room for six people to go canyoning and paragliding. Unfortunately it was raining on Monday so the paragliding was cancelled, but we were able to go rafting instead. As a consolation our accomodation was taken care of! (A total value of 18,000 yen!) Good deal :) It was the first time any of us had worn a wetsuit, goooooooooood times!


So excited!! We're not even in the water yet!





Lana and Chris went overboard!

Rafting was a lot of fun, and our tour guide was hilarious! We even got to do some swimming in the river, and jumped off 20 foot rocks. After rafting we went back to the lodge for lunch (which was also included). Yummy!!! Then it was time for canyoning. None of us really had any idea what canyoning was, but basically it's sliding down waterfalls!! It was SO much fun!! The first drop was 60 feet!!! We had to wear a harness, and were lowered half way down, they take your picture (I can't find my picture, it's somewhere around my apartment, so I'm going to post Lana's instead), then release the rope and you slide all the way down until you hit the water! Then we hit a couple more smaller waterfalls, but we weren't attached to a rope. We slid feet-first, then head first, then backwards, then jumped over the entire waterfall (only about 25 feet). I could've done that all day! The water was freezing, but we were wearing double wetsuits so we were fine.








Me being retarded for the camera :)

Lana and Kim

The first big drop! So much fun!! This is Lana, I'm going to kill myself if I don't find my picture! But this will do for now :)

Our crazy canyoning guides!!! They were so much fun, and they are so lucky! All they do is take people rafting and canyoning everyday, then eat and drink at the lodge everynight. Then when winter comes it's snowboarding and snowshoeing EVERYDAY! Why am I still a teacher?

We were a little bummed out that we couldn't go paragliding because that was the main reason for the trip, but it turned out to be so awesome! We are already planning our return :) But maybe not until next summer because it's FREEZING already!