Expedition to Irimizu Limestone Cave

This is first announcement for Irimizu cave walk on Apr 27th, Sunday.
The trekking through Irimizu cave would provide a very special experience.

Irimizu cave is located in Tamura City, Fukushima and is nearby famous cave, Abukuma-do. Though Irimizu cave is not very
known, it is designated as a national natural monument.
There are three courses to explore inside of the cave. We will take B course (600m, 60min) and walk in the water. Inside
of the cave is not so cold but the water is very cold. Please be prepared for that. I recommend you to wear shoes but
you can rent sandals at the entrance as well. Anyway, your feet will be wet. Rain jacket and trousers would be helpful
not to be very wet. We sometimes walk on all fours in the water. But you don't need to worry about narrowness so much. I
was also worried about it before I go there but actually I felt that there were enough spaces when I was there. But if
you are seriously claustrophobia, better not go. If you like adventure, you will like it.

I'm also planning to visit and walk around Natsui before the caving. There are a thousand of Sakura (cherry) trees along
the Natsui river and some walking courses around there. Hope Sakura will be blooming when we visit.

We will stop at an Onsen (hot spring) after the caving.

Meeting place: Tsukuba center bus terminal car park
Time: 8:30am
Approximate cost: 5,000yen
Club fee: 300yen
What to bring:

• Hiking boots
• Changing clothes and shoes (You can rent sandals at the entrance.)
• Headlamp (you can buy candles at the entrance. It would be more excited.)
• Rain jacket and trousers (You can rent rain coat at the entrance.)
• Onsen kid
• Lunch and drinks

If you would like to join the expedition, please let me know your name and phone number.
I would like to conduct this trip with a smaller group with two cars or less.

We were safely back from the cave exploring on Sunday.

We left Ninomiya House around 8:45 and headed to Natsui through Natsuigawa valley. The weather was good and temperature was around 23 degrees C. It was best timing for Sakura. We arrived at Natusi around noon and had lunch there. Many carps were swimming in the sky. This is the tradition for boys festival. We had a little walk to some shrines and a lookout after lunch.
We arrived at Irimizu cave around 14:45 and changed our cloths for the caving. We chose course-B (700yen). Course-A was easy, you don't need so many equipment for it but no pumps. The temperature in the cave was around 10 degrees C. It was not so cold since we were moving. But the water was super cold. If you got wet a lot, you would feel very cold. I was about to give up the coldness of water, I had an experience it before though. I felt I would lose my feet. But we got used to it after 5min. Candles were very nice in the cave. Definitely it makes situation more romantic and exciting than using a headlight ;-) After the caving, we stopped at Hariyu onsen (250yen) and warmed up our cold body. We left onsen around 18:30 and arrived at Tsukuba around 20:45.

Finally I would like to thank all the participants who made our trip fun.
Special thanks to Yoko, who drove all the trip and took nice photos!