blog

Meet the Team: Sara Suzuki

Canyons is not just a company, but it's a community. The people that run Canyons are not just employees but they are family. We want to share their story with you!

Published date: 2023-05-26

Meet the Team: Aki

Canyons is not just a company, but it's a community. The people that run Canyons are not just employees but they are family. We want to share their story with you!

Published date: 2023-05-26

Meet the Team: Mike Harris

Canyons is not just a company, but it's a community. The people that run Canyons are not just employees but they are family. We want to share their story with you!

Published date: 2023-05-12

Tokyo stag night (bucks night), hens party

Want to celebrate in style with something special for your friends stag night or hen party?

Published date: 2022-04-20

Canyons kiho open July 16th

We will open Canyons Kiho July 16th, Its the first Canyons base in Kansai area.

Published date: 2022-06-30

2022 Spring Tours

As the cherry blossoms bloom the snow starts to melt and the rivers are slowly rising. The start of the green season adventures is just around the corner!

Published date: 2022-04-01

Let us take your photo

At Canyons, we are happy to offer all of our customers their tour photos and videos, for free, as part of the day’s experience.

Published date: 2021-08-17

What does your "day off" look like?

Taking a day off right now might not seem like a priority in the midst of a global pandemic, but failing to take time off could actually have a negative effect not only to the company you work for but also on your physical and mental health.

Published date: 2021-07-08

Special Tours

If you have been following us on social media, you will have noticed that yesterday we started a mini-series of images showing some highlights from our SPECIAL canyoning tours this season. The images will be continuing over the next few days and showing some of the highlights from tours this month in Gunma, Niigata, Yamanashi, and even a tour that we run in a SECRET location. With that in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to ask Joe, one of our canyoning guides, to write a short piece about these tours, to let you know what makes them so SPECIAL! Read on to find out more...

Published date: 2021-10-13

Spending time together as a family is one of life’s greatest joys. It allows you some much-needed time together, breaking away from the daily routine and creates memories that will last a lifetime.

Published date: 2021-09-07

Hungry in Minakami?

Our guides let you know where they go to eat and get a belly full!

Published date: 2021-09-27

If you didn’t stay in one of our accommodation options then you’ve probably had an early start to the day. Combine that with an adrenaline-filled morning out on the river and you have a recipe for hunger. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered...Lunch time = Burger time!

Published date: 2021-09-14

Autumn is arriving

The hot temperatures of summer have passed. Autumn leaves have already begun to arrive in Niigata prefecture and will soon cross the mountainous border into Gunma.

Published date: 2021-10-06

Let us tell you 7 reasons why you should book your next adventure with us...

Published date: 2021-09-27

Winter is coming

Things are feeling more positive as we creep into November, with nearly 70% of Japanese residents being fully vaccinated, easing social restrictions and fresh snow on the peaks of Gunma and Niigata.

Published date: 2021-10-21

We love to hear feedback! After each one of our tours, we ask our customers to answer a short survey about their experience.

Published date: 2021-08-31

After working as a rafting guide in Japan for nine years, the monotony of “pushing rubber,” as we say in the business, became too much for me. I needed something fresh and exciting to renew my interest in outdoor adventure and retain my dwindling sanity. Enter canyoning.

Published date: 2021-08-24

Promoting world-class adventure tourism. Mike, currently runs "Canyons," which offers a range of adventure tours such as canyoning and rafting. We ask him how he has become rooted in Adventure Tourism (AT) in Minakami Town, and how AT may take root in Japan in the future.

Published date: 2021-08-24

Glamping is good for your health and here is why

Honestly, I will find any excuse to go on a last-minute day trip to get out and see something new. Come rain or shine, I find myself searching for my next getaway. Now I get to use the health benefits that glamping provides as the perfect reason to spend more time outdoors!

Published date: 2021-08-08

Pioneering canyoning in Japan

It all started in 1998. The emergence of Canyons. I was just back from another season guiding in Nepal and had picked up some canyoning skills from the European guides, who were there to set up the first canyoning routes. On my days off expedition rafting I would help them out carrying bolting equipment and got to "learn the ropes".

Published date: 2021-08-08

Canyoning rating systems

There are a few systems used around the world to rate the difficulty of a canyon but the 2 most widely used base systems are; 1. The American System 2. The French System Both refer to scales of technical difficulty in terms of ropework/verticality and whitewater. The American system is predominently used in North America whereas the rest of the world tents to use the French system.

Published date: 2021-05-16

Choosing a canyoning company in Japan

Japan canyoning has come a long way in the last 20 years. (As background read; Pioneering canyoning in Japan) There are now over 150 operators "canyoning" in Japan. (I use term canyoning loosely here as many of the operators (around 95%) that run non-technical VERY basic courses that mostly involve walking up and down shallow river gorges adding a few slides and jumps.) It is one of the most popular river sports in Japan now over the summer months. In Minakami alone on a busy summer saturday, over 1000 customers may take part in tours offered by the 15+ operators.

Published date: 2021-07-21

Canyoning around the world: Colorado, USA

"Canyoning around the world" is a series of posts about ......... you guessed it canyoning in different areas of the world. Not only do Canyons guides come from and work all over the world but we also have many canyoning friends, past employees that run operations in some SUPER cool places. Series 1: Canyoning Colorado, USA

Published date: 2021-08-08

Canyoning around the world: Ticino, Switzerland

"Canyoning around the world" is a series of posts about ......... you guessed it canyoning in different areas of the world. Not only do Canyons guides come from and work all over the world but we also have many canyoning friends, past employees that run operations in some SUPER cool places. Series 2: Ticino, Switzerland

Published date: 2021-08-08

Canyons: Leading the Charge with Women in Snowsports

Canyons is proud to hire people from all walks of life and is stoked to have women in the majority of its snowsports management roles. We talked to three of our women at the top about how they got there and what it means to be a woman in a typically male-dominated industry. We have Georgie, the Operations Manager at Go Myoko Ski School, Nikki, the Operations Manager at Yuzawa Ski Scool, and Brooke, the new Operations Manager at Nozawa Ski School.

Published date: 2021-08-08