Japan has a bit of an affinity with forest-based activities, and it's likely that you've heard of the forest bathing concept before. It's said that simply being in a forest is beneficial for one's health, but what if you want a bit of an adrenalin rush with your nature experience? Forest Adventure Gotemba is a great place to start if that's your goal, and it's suitable for beginners through to extreme thrill seekers.
The venue takes inspiration from Altus, a French company that began to create high wire adventure courses in 1997. These courses were originally designed for corporate trainings and team building events, but they ended up gaining mainstream popularity in many countries across the globe.
At Forest Adventure Gotemba there are four different high wire adventure courses, catering to beginners, intermediate, advanced, and max difficulty levels. The beginner level is even open to young elementary school-aged children (first grade and above, at least 110cm in height), so it's perfect if you're looking for a unique family-friendly activity.
Participants wear harnesses throughout the course which are connected via carabiners and pulleys to the high wires. Because of this, even if a participant was to fall, they're not at risk of injury because they're safely clipped in.
Spaces for the courses at Forest Adventure Gotemba do need to be reserved in advance, which can be done on their official website here. The site is in Japanese, but is easy to understand if you use Google Chrome and translate the content in your browser.
Also, if you're not in the Gotemba area, there are a number of other Forest Adventure locations across Japan – you can find the full list here.
