Canyoning in Tanigawa

Sawanobori means, literally, going up the stream, and it is exactly that: instead of walking a trail to the ridge, you enter a gorge at the bottom and climb the river itself — up its waterfalls, through its pools, over its water-polished slabs — in felt-soled boots that grip wet rock the way nothing else does. It is a distinctly Japanese discipline, practised for over a century, and it survives in this form almost nowhere else on earth.

The Tanigawa area and the Jōshin'etsu gorges are among its heartlands. Expect to be wet and cold for most of the day, to use ropes on the bigger falls, and to move through forest so dense the river is the only sensible way through it. Waterfalls are sacred in Japan, and climbing directly up one carries a charge that ordinary scrambling does not.

Guides are effectively essential: the routes are unmarked, escape from a gorge mid-climb is often impossible, and rain upstream can change everything within minutes.

Guides are effectively essential — routes are unmarked, escape from a gorge is often impossible mid-route, and rainfall upstream changes everything.