Reported by Hiroko.W

A almost empty bus from Hiraizumi —its passengers were the only two of us— passed　through rice paddies and speeded up on its way to Geibikei. When it arrived there I found there was nothing to worry about. It is a popular spot; many large tour busses were parked and people were heading to the landing stage. Along the road were souvenir shops and restaurants. Geibikei was much more active than I thought.

A 90-minute boat trip seemed like that of a gondola in Venice rather than a dynamic ride down on the mountain stream. My boat man controlled his boat with a long pole and said, “if accidentally you slipped down to the water, don't panic, you rarely drown because the Satetu river is about a meter deep." According to him, you can enjoy going both up and down the river here but in the other four places in Japan, you can only go one way down and boats are pulled up by motors or carried up by trucks. He explained about the name of the rocks with gentle humor—sorry that foreign tourists cannot understand his talk—and sang two local songs. It was an amazing boat trip full of Iwate's nature in peace.

Link:
http://www.vjy2010.jp/cp/detail/detail.php?shopid=20091109-0569
http://misawa-travelog.blogspot.com/2010/05/geibi-gorge.html
access: by a local buss from Hiraizumi St. to Geibikei,for 35 minutes by a local bus from Ichinoseki St. for 42 minutes by JR Ofunato line from Ichinoseki St. Geibikei St. for 30 minutes.Busses and trains run every hour or less often.