BUNGEE JUMPING IN MINAKAMI

Last week I went Bungee Jumping. Yes, that’s right!! Bungee Jumping!! It was scary and fun at the same time. Though I’ve seen it so many times on TV, I’ve never really thought about doing it.

Minakami

The place we did it was Minakami, a small scenic town in Gunma Prefecture. Minakami is about 150 Kilometers from Tokyo. The easiest way to get there is taking the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Jomo-Kogen which is about 75 Minutes and then taking a bus to Minakami which will be another 10 minutes. But as we wanted to go cheap, we took the local trains to Minakami.

Tokyo –> Ueno –> Takasaki –> Minakami

The travel time was around three hours and the total cost for the round trip was 5880 Yen. By Shinkansen to Jomo-Kogen it would cost you 10480 Yen for a round trip. Minakami is a really beautiful place. There are some beautiful rivers running through the area and there are also many mountains surrounding the town.

River in Minakami

Once you get to Minakami you can take a bus to the bungee jumping place. The cost is 320 Yen. We had booked the 1 PM slot for bungee jumping but got to Minakami by 10 AM, so we decided to walk from Minakami to the bungee jumping bridge. It’s not a long walk, it only took us about 40 minutes to get there even though we stopped at many places to take pictures.

Mountains around Minakami

Bungee Jumping

The Bungee Jumping place is a bridge that crosses the Tonegawa river. Their website claims that this is Japan’s only bridge bungee jumping. It is a 42 metre jump (137 feet). You have to first register yourself at their small office where they will check your weight and also ask you to fill out a form that says that they can’t be held responsible for accidents. Once you’re done with this you’re ready for the jump. You have to make sure that you don’t have any loose objects in your pockets. They strap a harness to your hips and another one to your feet. The bungee cord is connected to both the harnesses. So there is double protection I guess.

Standing at the edge of the platform and looking down is one of the scariest feelings ever. Knowing that in a few seconds you are going to jump of that bridge is frightening. They again check that all the equipments are ready and then give a count down – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 bungeeeee and it’s time for you to jump. I jumped off straight away. The few seconds that I was in the air were really scary and fun. I screamed at the top of my lungs. When you’re done they lower you onto a small inflatable raft boat waiting below in the river.

Anbu – Bungee Jumping

The photo above is my friend Anbu doing his jump. Of the four of us that went bungee jumping that day, he did the best jump I think, so I’ve got his photo in my blog. Below is a photo of my jump.

My Jump

The cost for jumping once is 7500 Yen and if you want to jump a second time immediately or any time within that year it is 4000 Yen. They give you a certificate in honour of your bravery. You can also get the photos of the jump from their photographer for 2500 Yen if you like. It’s worth paying them for the pictures because the photos they took were really amazing. The people who own ‘Bungy Japan’ are nice and friendly. You can find more details about Bungy Japan here.

Tanikawa-Dake

After the bungee jump we decided to go to Tanikawa-Dake.  We got a package from Minakami for 2800 Yen which includes a round trip from Minakami to Tanikawa-Dake by bus and also a round trip on the cable car up and down the mountain. The bus ride from Minakawa to Tanikawa-Dake is 20 minutes. It’s been a couple of months since the end of winter so I never imagined that there would be snow on top. While going on the bus itself we could see a bit of snow but when we got on the cable car and went up there were people snowboarding there. I was totally unprepared for snow and was just wearing my sweater so I didn’t really go out much.

Cable car in Tanikawa-Dake

The view from the cable car was really nice. I think I’m scared of heights. As we went up I tried not to look down too much. On top they have a nice coffee shop where you can sit and enjoy the scenery but unfortunately there was too much mist and fog that day. While coming back it was snowing heavily. But I didn’t complain because it felt a lot safer as I couldn’t see much.

View from the Cable car – Tanikawa-Dake

It was quite a fun trip. But the travel time was long. We travelled almost eight hours if you include the bus travel times also. But it was worth it I would say.

Have you ever been bungee jumping?