Geibikei Gorge has the COOLEST Rural Boat Ride // Exploring Iwate, Japan
“If you make the rower angry, we won’t be going home.” This eccentric Japanese boatman sang us the song of his people. This might just be the coolest boat ride in Japan. But let’s start from the beginning. At dawn we woke in Aomori city. So it is unfortunately not any snowier this morning.
It is day four of our journey exploring northeastern Japan. And we were just heading out for a nice breakfast. So they’re letting us use a second table to put our stuff. The staff has been really nice. Coffee Marron, which we found on google maps – just a few paces from our hotel –
Is a delight. A warm and cozy little cafe filled with all sorts of interesting trinkets and memorabilia. And run by wonderful, welcoming people. So this is really nice. It’s a very cool looking cafe. A lot of their menu items are unfortunately not available until lunch, but.. we get coffee, toast..
All right that was nice. The staff, the owner I think, is just really nice. Really polite and friendly. Good experience. So there’s a nice little shrine right opposite the coffee house actually. We’re gonna have a nice little morning stroll before we hightail it to the station again.
We enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere and we didn’t know it at the time but Utou Shrine, seemingly unremarkable, is actually closely intertwined with the history of Aomori city. Thought to have been founded when this land was still called “Utou Village”. But now it is time to leave Aomori.
Okay we are now at the station. We’ve got a little bit of time to kill. Okay so we were about to go into the shopping mall but unfortunately it’s closed. It won’t be open until 10 so that’s not gonna happen. So we’re here at the souvenir shop next to the station instead.
Looking for a hat for my mom. It’s a nice little place. Okay thank you. Enjoy your day. So interestingly there’s actually a pretty significant accumulation of snow outside of the city area. Okay we are now in Iwate Prefecture. This is the capital city of Morioka. We are not going to explore Morioka.
We are just here as a transit waiting for the next train and we’re getting ourselves some bento. Okay we got our “ekiben” and honestly they look like the most bourgeois ekiben I’ve ever had. So we’ll see if it actually tastes good in the train. So this was kind of expensive.
Maybe it’ll be worth it? It looks pretty good. Oh dang, kani (crab) miso man. My favorite thing ever. This… paste. Best **** ever. I think I can safely say that that was the most bourgeois bento set I’ve ever had. One of the tastiest too. Okay we are now at a town called Ichinoseki.
We are going to head to our hotel to drop our luggage first. Surprisingly not only is there no snow, there’s actually a little bit of fall colors still going on here. So it’s a Japanese style room. A little bit smaller than I expected but pretty nice.
Pretty nice looking town with a nice little hill in the distance. All right back to the station now where we’ll take a train to Geibikei and then we’ll do a nice little boat ride there. This is a really beautiful countryside. It’s really nice even without the snow.
It reminds me of some of my hiking hotspots back in Tokyo.. Back *near* Tokyo rather. I really like places like this. That is Geibikei station, really small station. Oh I like places like these, very nice.
So before we get on the boat I’m gonna try to scout for the bus stop for the ride back home. Look at that, it’s nice. Okay I believe I found it. We should have a bus back. Now we can… get to the boat.
Transportation can be a bit of a maze with these more rural areas but this unique vibe is often worth it. So we got these. I think they are dried figs. Very sweet, surprisingly good. I don’t usually like dried fruits but…
So after the last couple of days today it’s actually, actually comparatively pretty warm. And I think those are the boats we’ll be taking. They are equipped with “kotatsu” which are tables with heating underneath them. So… there is no snow. It would have looked amazing with snow but we’ll make the best of it.
“If you make the rower angry, we won’t be going home.” “Geibikei is 2 kilometers long.” “Understand?” Geibikei Gorge. Two kilometers of the Satesu River flanked by stalwart limestone cliffs. What we’re experiencing here is the “Funakudari”, a guided tour by boat steered with bamboo poles.
So there’s like a face kind of thing on the rock and he was like taking a picture of it for us. As is common for this sort of thing, many sections of cliff are graced with creative names. While we were too early for snow,
We still got to enjoy something of a winter exclusive: “Kotatsu” heated tables in the boat to keep us warm. So there’s actually like a bit of a walking section. I think we will walk 300 meters and then we’ll come back to the boat. This is very beautiful.
Also this guy that is basically being our tour guide here, he’s amazing. Really adding a lot of character to this whole thing. So that hole over there is supposed to be the dragon’s eye. there’s kind of like a dragon shape here and the idea is you can take these stones
And then they have like, “money” and “love”, that kind of thing written on it and you try to throw it into the eye… presumably if you get it in then you’ll get your wish. So I guess.. no love no money. We got back on the boat for the return trip
And as we found out, this is where the best part begins. “It’s a very long song so if you don’t feel like listening anymore” “please raise your hand.” “Here is ‘Geibi Oiwake’, thank you very much” I’ll leave the full song for you if you ever come here, but what a cool experience. Our guide was witty and tried gamely to communicate with us and there’s just something about being out here listening to the boatman’s song… that feels unfathomably unique.
Okay that was extremely fun, this was great. Anyway we have a bit of time before the bus. I’m thinking of maybe getting some soft cream or something. So we did a bit of shopping, bought some ice cream, chatted with them a bit and now we are heading to the bus, that was good.
It’s a beautiful sunset here in the countryside. Station is unexpectedly lit up. This is… pretty lit… Okay Izakaya time again. So chicken skin, this place specializes in chicken I think. That is some good chicken skin! Negima (meat and leek) Chicken heart. That flavour! This is avocado tofu, never seen it before.
Not sure what is this? We ordered like chicken ham I think, but this just looks like raw chicken. I think the chicken itself has kind of a smoked flavor, so maybe it’s kind of cured. But it looks raw. So this kid is about to try “natto”.
So my camera audio somehow stopped working at this point, but in case you’re wondering: yes, those are toothbrushes my brother is using as chopsticks. Here’s him probably telling you that he didn’t like the natto so much, but gamely going for another taste anyway.
Every single Japanese person I’ve spoken to have sworn by these slimy fermented soybeans. But yeah. I’m not too fond of them myself. So a quick look because there’s no one here right now. Simple enough facility. So after a nice onsen bath, the day ends here in my Futon. Up next!
We spent a pleasant morning exploring the historical town of Hiraizumi. Before embarking on another long ride, this time to Yamagata. We were greeted at the legendary hot spring town of Ginzan Onsen by heavy rain, but our spirits were not dampened as we checked into a Ryokan for a wonderful night.
Be sure to join us on our final stop as our journey continues!
After a nice breakfast at a quaint cafe in Aomori City, we take a brief stroll at the historic Utou Shrine, before taking a train down south to Ichinoseki city, Iwate prefecture. We then travel out to the countryside for perhaps the coolest boat ride in Japan. A leisurely trip down the beautiful Geibikei Gorge in a little boat steered by bamboo poles, and equipped with warm Kotatsu tables, while our boatman guide serenaded us with a hearty native song.
Part 4 of our Journey North East Japan! Next up is our last stop at Ginzan Onsen, Yamagata – so subscribe to be notified!
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