August 24th Iruma River

We started our day with blue skies and thought we would be in for a hot hot day.

We completed our first round of pick ups and headed out to West Tokyo to pick up another scout before making our way out to the river. While on our way we played “I spy” and talked about various things the scouts were interested in and in no time at all we arrived at our Event location, Iruma river.

After setting up and going over the river safety protocols we made our way down to the swimming area as everyone wanted to float in the deep water. We practiced kicking and paddling with everyone doing their best to swim while getting pushed about in the light currents. A couple of the scouts wanted to try jumping and we had a few goes at that before exploring the rest of the water falls.

While we were there we were lucky enough to observe a fisherman pull some fish from the water but it was very exciting for everyone.

By now we are all getting hungry so we headed back to camp to gather firewood so we could light a fire. Again the scouts helped by collecting what we needed and separating the twine into a tinder bundle so I could light it with the flint and steel. As the wind was blowing strong we failed at our first attempt so we made a new Tinder bundle and this time added a small amount of cardboard and soon we had a good fire going.

We left the fire to burn down while we had our lunch, returning to roast our marshmallows. While we were roasting our marshmallows the rain started to pick up which was concerning for some of our scouts. But after a little encouragement and explanation the concern was washed away and we were able to play in the rain and the shallows for the next hour or so.

By now it had the time has come for us to head back so we packed up our things and headed to the car. Before leaving we got some shaved ice and sat down together to enjoy the last 30 minutes at the river.

The locals in the have grown quite fond of seeing the young children and several came out to say goodbye as we left.

Within a few moments of leaving the scout started to fall asleep and within 10 minutes all were sleeping soundly as we made our way back to the drop off points.

On our way back we stopped for a toilet break and a quick snack. The scouts picked out some yogurt drinks and juice and use their allowance to buy it. This store had automatic telling machines and they were quite intrigued while putting the money in the machine and being able to press the buttons.

All in all we had a grand day at the river and we are looking forward to our next adventure together.