Cruise a winter river at a heated table
In winter, some river boats in Japan carry a kotatsu, a low table with a heater underneath and a quilt draped over it. You sit with your legs under the quilt and watch snowy gorges or quiet canals drift by. Most run only from December to February or March.
A roofed boat with kotatsu runs about an hour down the Mogami River between snowy mountains, the river the haiku poet Matsuo Basho made famous. On the way, the boatman sings the Mogami River boat song. Kotatsu boats run from December to March; it is a long trip from Tokyo, about 3.5 hours by shinkansen to Shinjo and then a local train.
A boatman poles the boat up a gorge of sheer rock walls and back, about 90 minutes in all, while you eat hot pot or kamameshi, rice cooked in its own small pot, at the kotatsu. On the way back, the boatman sings a local folk song that echoes off the cliffs. Kotatsu boats run from December to February, in Iwate, north of Sendai.
A short, 20-minute ride on a calm stretch of the Arakawa River, past Iwadatami, a wide shelf of flat, layered rock along the bank. It is the easiest kotatsu boat to reach from Tokyo, about 2 hours by train from Ikebukuro. Runs from January 1 to the end of February.
Flat-bottomed boats with a kotatsu warmed by a charcoal brazier glide for about an hour through the old castle moats of Yanagawa, past bare willows and old storehouses. Of all these boats, it spends the longest winding through a town. Runs from December to the end of February; Yanagawa is about 50 minutes by express train from Tenjin in Fukuoka.
The boat makes a full loop of the moat around Matsue Castle, one of only twelve castles in Japan whose original keep survives, past stone walls dusted with snow. At the lowest bridges, the roof comes down and everyone ducks low over the kotatsu. Kotatsu boats start in December.
A boatman sculls the boat with a single long oar along the Maekawa River in the old riverside town of Itako, for about 30 minutes. In February and March, you can pair it with the hina dolls, tiered doll displays for Girls' Day, set out around town. Call ahead to check it is running.