The Life Bringing Water of Mt. Yotei:
Rafting Tour & Soba Making Experience

Tour start: Moving from Sapporo to Niseko via private train. Inside the train, a small lunchbox will be given to each participant. Take your time to eat while savoring Hokkaido`s beautiful nature from the window next to your seat.

Rafting: From JR Kutchan Station, we will move via private shuttle bus to Hokkaido Lion Adventure’s river base. At the base, we will put on our wetsuits (or a drysuit depending on the weather conditions) and once everyone is ready, we will walk straight to the Shiribetsu River and start our rafting tour. The Shiribetsu River was nominated the clearest stream in Japan for seven consecutive years, is a gentle stream and the perfect place to start rafting! The rafting course has a level 1 classification on the rafting difficulty scale (the scale can go up to level 6) and is considered a float trip mostly.

Soba making and lunch: We return to the river base, change our clothes, and move by shuttle bus to the community center of Kyogoku Town. Here we will listen to a lecture about Japanese soba noodles by soba expert Mr. Wada. Afterwards, we have lunch which will be the same as the subject of the former lecture, Japanese soba noodles! But before we can eat our soba noodles, we need to make them first! Follow the instructions of Mr. Wada and enjoy this culinary cultural exchange.

Hike in the Fukidashi Park: Hike up the 219 steps to the view platform of Fukidashi Park, the perfect place to gaze at the nature surrounding the foot of Mt. Yotei. While we hike, our guide will provide us with information about the Fukidashi Park’s spring, as well as explain the origin of its spirituality and the 33 Ojizosan statues. We end the day with an afternoon coffee break at Cafemocha, a local café which uses only Mt. Yotei spring water for their products.

Tour end: Moving back to Sapporo via shuttle bus.