Ride a boat between the cliffs of a gorge
River boats carry you into gorges, where you sit close to the water and look up at cliffs, rapids and forest that you cannot see from the road. On some rivers, boatmen steer long wooden boats down the rapids by hand with poles and oars. Sailings stop when the water is too high or too low, so check the operator's notice on the day.
A half-hour boat trip through Oboke Gorge in Shikoku, where steep walls of striped rock rise straight out of the Yoshino River. You wear a life jacket and sit low, close to the water. It is far from Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, so it suits a trip around Shikoku; no booking is needed.
Boatmen steer long wooden boats down the Arakawa River past Iwadatami, wide flat terraces of rock along the bank at Nagatoro. The ride takes about 20 minutes and boards a minute's walk from Nagatoro Station, about two hours from central Tokyo by train. It runs from March to early December.
A ride of about two hours down 16 km of river, from Kameoka through a wooded mountain gorge to Arashiyama in Kyoto. Boatmen pole, row and steer the wooden boat through the rapids, and you step off right in Arashiyama's sightseeing area. Kameoka is a short JR train ride from Kyoto Station; sailings stop in bad weather or high water.
A boat ride of about an hour through the Mogami River gorge in Yamagata, in northern Japan, while the boatman sings old boat songs. The boats keep running in winter, gliding past snowy banks. You land downstream from where you board, so check the bus back before you go.
Boatmen steer a wooden boat down the Tenryu River in southern Nagano, from the hot spring area at Tenryukyo through a rocky gorge, and a free shuttle bus takes you back to the start. When the river is low, the company switches to a shorter course or cancels, so check its notices first.