With a fine selection of beaches, rivers, lakes, gorges, and leisure centers, Kumamoto has many water sports to choose from. Whether you\u2019re looking for a simple swim, a relaxing paddle, or a thrilling, fast-paced adventure, head to this city on the western coast of Kyushu and check out what\u2019s on offer.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s a swim you\u2019re after, you can try one of the city\u2019s leisure or sports facilities as many of them have pools. One of the most popular is the Aqua Dome<\/a> in the Minami area. Aqua Dome has a main (50-meter) pool, a smaller (25-meter) pool, and a specialized diving pool open during the summer months by experienced divers. Another good pool is at the Uto City Sports Club<\/a>. In addition to the 8-lane 50-meter pool, there is a pool for infants and a slider pool.<\/p>\n For outdoor swimming in a more natural environment, head to Okoshiki beach<\/a> in Uto, considered one of Japan\u2019s most beautiful beaches. There is also a great swimming spot on the Kikuchi river<\/a> in northern Kumamoto. You can access the location by following the signs for the Kikuchi gorge and looking for a left turn marked by a big picture map sign. You will find a free parking lot, a caf\u00e9 and public toilets here.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t fancy wading through the water using your limbs and would prefer to do so from the comfort of a boat, one place to head to is the picturesque Lake Ezu<\/a>, which runs for 2.5 kilometers alongside route 57. As well as cooling off with a dip in the lake, you can rent a rowing boat (around 700 yen per hour) or a pedalo (about 2,300 yen per hour). Another even more spectacular location is the Soyo Gorge<\/a>, a 10-kilometer U-shaped valley flanked by rocks rising to 200 meters. The Gokase Nature School is based in the gorge and runs activities and classes in kayak canoeing<\/a> and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP)<\/a>.<\/p>\n For a slightly more high-octane kayaking experience, you can try the Ide Venture<\/a> on the Kikuchi canal. This is essentially two-person canoeing along a 2-kilometer course that takes in forests of trees, bridges, and a 300-meter underground tunnel. This experience is available during the summer months only (July to September) at 3,300 yen per person (2,200 yen for children).<\/p>\n Those partial to riding the waves with their own surfing equipment can head down to one of Kumamoto\u2019s best-surfing\u00a0spots<\/a>. Here, you can sometimes find instructors with equipment willing to offer lessons to beginners. For rafting, the Kuma river is one of the best locations in the region. Land Earth<\/a> is an adventure water sports company that has been running since 1992. Instructors provide rafting and canyoning sessions ranging from family-friendly routes to the \u201cducky\u201d high-tension tour for thrill-seekers, costing 9,800 yen per person. Rafting Heart is another provider of rafting activities on the river.<\/p>\n A little further afield in neighboring Oita, you can journey to the Sumiyoshihama Resort Park and try your hand at windsurfing<\/a> (4,000 yen) or wakeboarding<\/a> (5,000 yen).<\/p>\n MK Products<\/a>, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With a fine selection of beaches, rivers, lakes, gorges, and leisure centers, Kumamoto has many water sports to choose from. Whether you\u2019re looking for a simple swim, a relaxing paddle, or a thrilling, fast-paced adventure, head to this city on the western coast of Kyushu and check out what\u2019s on offer. Swimming and Diving If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,43,63],"tags":[50,46,84,465,473,468,470,53],"class_list":["post-5108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-friendly","category-kumamoto-2","category-outdoors","tag-august-2","tag-july-2","tag-june","tag-kumamoto-city","tag-kumamoto-outdoors","tag-kumamoto-prefecture","tag-oita-prefecture","tag-summer-2"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49980,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5108\/revisions\/49980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Boating<\/h2>\n
Surfing, Rafting, and Boarding<\/h2>\n
![MK Products<\/a>,](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Kamiezuko-lake_kuwamizuhonmachi_1.jpg\"){kind=link}