The Guides in Yamanashi

So with the first Yamanashi Canyoning Tour of the season coming up this weekend, the guides headed down there yesterday to run the course and make sure it still lives up to its hype. It's a stunning walk in, with a path that meanders along the course so you can check out all the features you are due to face.

The start point is about an hour and a half in, when you reach the top pools, a stunning section of five waterfalls, all with perfect sliders. A dream start to a canyoning course. The falls get progressively bigger with the fifth one being a huge 20 metre drop.

Below is the fourth waterfall and slider which is at the bottom of the picture above. You get swept down the face and over a smooth lip that launches you out into the pool.

After that you come to the big one. As you sit atop this one you can't see the bottom of the waterfall but can definitely hear the water pounding down into the pool below you. You slip in to a natural chute, straight into the main flow which fires you out into the pool, and after a decent dunking, washes you out to the safety of the far bank. When you're sitting at the top you'll be wondering what you have let yourself in for and why you're doing this. By the time you are washed up at the bottom, you'll fully understand.

That is a guide's foot in mid-plummet in the picture above.

This is only the first few minutes of the tour. There is plenty more river to run after this with loads more jumps, waterfalls and sliders. We don't want to give away too much. You'll just have to give it a go yourself. Definitely big thrills and a full-on canyoning experience guaranteed.