Kanto with kids: The Tokyo area's best family outdoor adventures
Many equate the Kanto area with Tokyo’s vast concrete sprawl. But the seven-prefecture region -- home to 42 million people -- extends from vertiginous, pine-clad mountains in Gunma in the north to the semitropical Ogasawara Islands in the south.
This means plenty of adventures await within its 32,000 square kilometers. Here are five of the best, road-tested by our resident parents.
Raft the Tone River
Wild and wet -- the Tone River is as rough as they come in the area.
In addition to supplying Tokyo with drinking water, Japan’s second longest river also provides some of the best white-water rafting in the country.
During spring snowmelt -- and this year in late summer thanks to unusually heavy rains -- the river boasts adrenaline-inducing grade-four rapids.
A number of outdoor adventure companies based in the historic hot-spring town Minakami operate rafting and kayaking tours along the rapid-filled Momijikyo section in Gunma Prefecture.
Among them, Canyons, run by affable Kiwi Mike Harris, is one of the largest and caters to kids as young as six.
Heavy spring snowmelt from Gunma’s lofty peaks raises the Tone’s level enough to allow for heart-stopping full-day tours, with powerful waves that threaten to wash small ones overboard.
In summer, the river offers the gentler prospect of half-day junkets complimented by swimming and jumping from its rocky banks.
The Tone offers a mixed bag of scenery, meandering past verdant wooded ravines and fading Bubble-era hot spring hotels that seem to spring straight from a Hayao Miyazaki film.
Canyons provides bilingual guides and all the equipment you need except a bathing suit.
Getting there: Minakami is less than three hours from central Tokyo via the Shinkansen Joetsu and Takasaki train lines or Kanetsu expressway.
Canyons; +81 (0) 278 72 2811; canyons.jp
Ride Odawara’s zip lines
Swinging through the trees -- almost as nature intended.
High in a grove of lofty Japanese cedar trees, groups of intrepid children and adults are negotiating a suspended maze of ropes, ladders and lines with names like Tibetan Bridge and Tarzan Swing.
Welcome to Forest Adventure, a French NPO whose blend of tree climbing and zip lining -- riding wires via a harness attached to a pulley -- has taken off worldwide in recent years.
With over 500 locations in France, the company arrived in Japan in 2006 and already has 11 courses across the country. Among them, the Odawara park about an hour southwest of Tokyo is not only the most accessible but also the most kid friendly.
We arrive on a sunny fall morning, and are soon strapping on heavy duty mountaineering harnesses and carabineers, along with a pulley system -- Forest Adventure’s key zip line innovation.
A brief practice session with kindly park manager Takuo Shibuya and we are off, left to our own devices to negotiate a progressively difficult series of treetop challenges.
With the longest course offering eight kid-friendly zip lines open to children as young as the first grade, the Odawara Forest Adventure boasts of being a three-generation experience.
Our own younger generation is at first put off by the idea of swinging into thin air from 10-meter-high platforms, but by the end of the two-hour course he is zipping along through the trees like any fine young Tarzan.
Popular with folk from nearby U.S. military bases and corporate team builders as well as thrill-seeking nature-deprived locals, Forest Adventure Odawara gets crowded. Arrive early to maximize your zip fun.
Getting there: One hour from central Tokyo via the Odakyu and JR lines, or Tomei Expressway and Odawara-Atsugi Road.
Forest Adventure; +81 (0) 80 4330 4030; www.foret-aventure.jp
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Swim with dolphins
What's that you say Flipper? "The kids are stuck in the disused mine?"
Just south of Kanto stretch the Izu Peninsula and Islands, a string of dramatic volcanic outcroppings that dot the Pacific for several hundred kilometers.
Even further out are the Ogasawaras, which form the subtropical antipodes of Kanto, some 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo.
In contrast to Japan’s notorious dolphin kills, several possibilities for peaceful dolphin interaction await in the clear, warm waters of the Pacific that surround Izu and the Ogasawaras.
Closest to Tokyo is the Shimoda Floating Aquarium, which sits on a natural cove that serves as home for a number of dolphins and small whales near the picturesque fishing town Shimoda.
Reached in three hours via JR’s Odoriko special express and a short taxi, the aquarium is a bit tatty. But its dolphin encounters offer the chance to snorkel with, feed and even touch cetaceans in a natural environment guided by experts in the field.
Those who prefer a more pristine and politically correct experience should head to Mikura Island, where they can scuba dive with a flock of about 200 wild but curious bottlenose dolphins.
Dolphin Club Miyake is one of the better-known operators and offers bilingual tours. Due to the scuba skills required Mikura dolphin tours are limited to older children.
If you’re game for a 25-hour boat ride, the Ogasawaras -- technically part of Tokyo -- are a remote chain renowned for their superb underwater scenery.
Sea-Tac and Pink Dolphin offer a range of bilingual dolphin-swim and whale-watching tours, while Pink Dolphin has a glass-bottomed boat so even the youngest of visitors can catch a glimpse.
Getting there: Izu can be accessed by car or the Odoriko special express. Mikura is accessed via the larger Miyake Island, 180 kilometers south of Tokyo, by either a six-hour boat ride or 45-minute flight. The Ogasawaras are reached via the Ogasawaramaru ferry, which leaves every six days from Takebashi pier.
Shimoda Aquarium; +81 (0) 558 27 2770; www.shimoda-aquarium.com
Dolphin Club Miyake; +81 (0) 4994 6 0996; www.dolphin-club-miyakejima.com
Pink Dolphin; +81 (0) 90 2220 1948; pinkdolphin.p1.bindsite.jp
Sea-Tac; +81 (0) 4998 2 2277; www.ogasawara.or.jp
Tour Gunma’s winter backcountry
Knee-deep in snow, youthful energy and saying "cheese" for photographers.
A thousand kilometers north of the Ogasawaras, stands Gunma Prefecture’s crowning 2,000-meter Tanigawadake mountain range.
With a ridiculously deep four-meter winter snowpack, the range provides the snowmelt that powers the Tone River’s hair-raising raft rides.
Gunma’s backcountry has been well mapped by an increasingly adventurous band of Japanese and international skiers and boarders.
But in addition to death-defying inclines, there are also plenty of more serene slopes that provide the perfect setting for tykes to get their first taste of deep powder.
Canyons in Minakami provides bilingual ski and snowboarding lessons for kids as young as three, but for slightly older kids, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing offer a way to get away from the blaring J-Pop and crowds at the ski resorts.
Snowshoeing is easy to learn, available to kids as young as six and gets them close to nature via Gunma’s extensive network of backcountry trails.
Cross-country skiing is open to kids 10 and up and offers a vigorous workout and more intimate way to experience the magnificent stillness of the Japanese countryside in winter.
Bears inhabit the backcountry of Gunma and neighboring prefectures but have never been known to devour small children -- though the threat may be a good way to keep rambunctious young 'uns in line.
Getting there: Minakami is less than three hours from central Tokyo via the Shinkansen Joetsu and Takasaki train lines or Kanetsu expressway.
Canyons; +81 (0) 278 72 2811; canyons.jp
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Climb Mount Fuji
Just the once -- no fools, us.
At 3,776 meters, Japan’s tallest mountain and spiritual lodestone presents a daunting prospect.
Yet children as young as six regularly ascend its flanks. Most tackle the mountain not from its base, but from halfway up Fuji-san.
The most popular route to the summit, which on close examination is a giant pile of volcanic rubble, is from the 2,300-meter Kawaguchiko Fifth Station.
From there it’s still a grueling five-to-seven-hour ascent and three-to-five-hour descent via the busy Yoshida Trail.
Most climbers seek to view the sunrise from the peak -- an experience considered auspicious and affording magnificent views across Japan at a time of day most likely to yield good weather.
This entails climbing to either the seventh or eighth station and spending a short night in one of the many mountain huts, or -- less recommended for small children -- ascending the mountain at around 10 p.m. and hiking through the night to reach the summit by sunrise.
It’s also possible to hike Mount Fuji during the day, which offers the prospect of less-crowded trails and a pleasant night back in the comfort of your hotel.
Sensible clothing and footwear are a must, as the summit is cold and windy even during the summer.
Hikers should also be aware of possible altitude sickness, with numerous would-be Fuji conquerors forced to turn back.
Nonetheless, with good preparation and a sense of realism, many families have successfully escorted (or perhaps been led by) their children to the top of Fuji-san.
Kids may want to mail a postcard to Grandma and Grandpa from the iconic post office at the summit, but remember the local proverb: “He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool.”
And yes, we know Mount Fuji is not technically in Kanto. Nonetheless, its easy accessibility from Tokyo and spiritual significance combine to make it an honorary Kanto Best Adventure.
Getting there: Buses run daily via the Fuji Subaru tollway from Mount Fuji Station in Kawaguchiko. Bus service is also available from Shinjuku in Tokyo directly to the fifth Station in about two hours.
Climbing info: www.city.fujiyoshida.yamanashi.jp
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