This newest type of outdoor activity combines shower climbing, where you climb up an invigorating mountain stream, and regular caving, where you explore deep into exhilarating, dark caves. Discover a steep gorge filled with giant boulders and then follow the path of the rushing stream through the gaps in the rocks. Keep fighting forward as you crawl through parts of the course with your face centimeters from the surface of the water....

Matsudaira-go Enchi Park is a five-acre expanse of greenery next to the main road in the village of Matsudaira, along the way from Matsudaira Toshogu Shrine to Kogetsuin Temple. The park was designed to represent the local landscape as it might have looked during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when the Matsudaira family controlled these lands. Seasonal flowers bloom in the park from spring to autumn. There are cherry blossoms...

On a now heavily forested hill overlooking the road into the village of Matsudaira is the site of a small medieval fortress where the Matsudaira samurai family were prepared to retreat in the event that their estate down in the village should fall into enemy hands. Though known as Matsudaira Castle, this stronghold is thought to have consisted mainly of rudimentary fortifications around the top of the hill, around 300 meters above se...

Rokusho Shrine is a Shinto sanctuary that traces its history back to Matsudaira Chikauji (d. 1394?), the founder of the Matsudaira samurai family that ruled the lands around the village of Matsudaira from the late 1300s onward. According to legend, Chikauji established the shrine on the summit of Mt. Rokusho so that the enshrined deities would watch over his family who lived in the valley below. However, the mountain itself is though...

Myoshoji is a small Soto Zen temple with deep ties to the Matsudaira samurai family that ruled the lands around the village of Matsudaira from the late 1300s onward. The temple is located in Otaki Gorge on a terraced plot supported by moss-covered stone walls. It is a few minutes’ walk uphill along the river from the parking lot at the entrance to the gorge. The structures include the main hall built in 1854, a somewhat older gate th...

Along with Odo Onsen Hot Spring and Sasado Onsen Hot Spring, Sakakino Onsen Hot Spring is one of the Oku-Yahagi Onsen-go hot springs. The water is good for neuralgia and rheumatism. People come here mainly for recuperation. Nearby are a turtle farm, orchid garden, and the Oshiinomagai-butsu stone Buddha carved on a natural stone wall. Asahi’s local gifts include natural yam.

A multipurpose leisure facility on a highland elevation of 650 m. Enjoy various activities such as camping, barbecue picnics, a petting zoo, hands-on classes, and astronomical observations. In winter, kids can enjoy the Snow Sled "Gelände" Slope. Inside the building is Restaurant Genki-Tei and Genki Market. Genki-Tei has dishes with locally-grown yam while Genki Market sells fresh vegetables, pickles, and local gifts.

Odo Onsen Hot Spring's main attraction is the radon bath. It can help ease rheumatism, neuralgia, high blood pressure, and other ailments. Many people come here seeking the hot spring's therapeutic effects. In summer, you can fish for sweetfish and red-spotted masu salmon in the stream or catch sweetfish with your hands in the weir. Shimazaki Park also has tennis courts. The local cuisine changes with the seasons. Mountain vegetables...

Zofukuji Temple—otherwise known as “Furindera Temple”, meaning the “Wind Chime Temple”—is a Buddhist temple in the small, 300-person town of Odo. In 2002, the temple became the first in Japan to receive wind chimes as donations after Zofukuji Temple’s chief priest answered the wishes of the younger generation to revitalize the Odo area. Over 7,000 of these wind chimes, known as Odo’s “Yumekake Furin Wind Chimes”, are enshrined withi...

Approximately 3,000 weeping peach trees flourish in the Asahi district's Kaminaka-cho. The walking paths in the area are lined with beautiful weeping peach blossoms for about 1 kilometer. Early to mid-April is usually the best time to view the flowers, though they can bloom at different times in some years.