Kayaking in Okutama

I recently made the discovery of an outdoor activity club that makes frequent excursions to places around Tokyo. With hiking aside, I guess it's been a while since I've done any outdoor type of sport, and so I took the chance the moment I saw it, made a bank transfer, and showed up to one of the group's meetings in a remote corner of Tokyo prefecture named Okutama, which is pretty much the farthest place you can go from the heart of the city while still being considered in Tokyo.
 Okutama is untouched by the sprawl of the metropolis, though, and is a little bit more than an hour from Shinjuku by train. It's a pocket, or rather, a chain of pockets of civilization nestled between green mountains, with valleys and rivers and waterfalls crisscrossing every which way. Like so many places outside of the cities of Japan, people here live off the land.

 As it turned out, the day was wet and miserable. After five full scorching sunny days, a typhoon swept through Japan and pissed rain down on me on the very day of my outing. I wasn't too thrilled at first, but it turned out to be quite alright in the end - because kayaking, as the organizer said, gets you wet all the same.

 I hadn't kayaked in 6 years! The last time I went was in the Laurentides, in the open sea surrounded by whales, penguins and seals and a sky full of boobies (the bird species named booby, to be sure, though the other type would've been interesting too.) Kayaking brought back good memories, but I wondered if I remembered anything about how to row at all.
 Turns out I did! Fun fun fun.
Our group rowed up the misty canals of Okutama, against quite a bit of current brought on, no doubt, by the rain. Though many of my fellow rowers were spiraling uncontrollably, I managed quite alright, if I were to be my own judge!
 With the mist sitting right on top of the river, the whole setting had some magic to it. We were, in fact, down in a valley, with high cliff sides on either side and the one eventual wood bridge looming high overhead. It felt like the set of an Indiana Jones adventure. Even though a river in the countryside hardly compares to the Atlantic Ocean, kayaking in Okutama was very fulfilling in its own right, and I probably could've spent the day exploring the misty green valley if I were given the choice.

 Eventually I was even allowed to jump off one of the cliffs and into the water, which was actually quite deep. I did a front flip right in, forgetting I was wearing a life vest. I can tell you with certainty the life vests work, now.
 After a few hours, we made our way back and pulled the kayaks out of the water, and that was pretty much that. But since I made the discovery of the group, there's great opportunity to go at it as often as I care to spend the money for, and try lots of new outdoorsy things!