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    • Spring
      • video

        Finding the Flow from Kansai to Kochi

        Shikoku’s many mountains, valleys and proximity to the ocean has made it a hidden gem for rafting, kayaking and canyoning enthusiasts willing to take a step or two further from the Golden Route of Kyoto and Osaka.

        Solace and Giant Salamanders in Akiota

        Just beyond Hiroshima City is a tranquil outdoor destination home to some of Japan's last remaining oosanshouo, the elusive giant salamander.
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        The Oni Trail: Hiking Coastal Kyoto

        The mystical oni is prevalent in Japanese children’s stories, usually as a way to scare kids straight. Adventure Travel Kyoto is shedding a new light on this folklore and developing a new hiking route in the countryside of Kyoto.
    • Summer
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        The World is Our Playground

        The Pasche family has been cycling and living out of a tent in remote corners of the planet for the past 13 years on four continents spanning 50 countries.
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        Adventure Travel World Summit in Hokkaido

        The ATTA will host their first Adventure Travel World Summit in Asia in Hokkaido, Japan. We caught up with ATTA Director Shannon Stowell to find out more about the adventure travel industry and how it continues to grow and evolve.
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        The Sweet Secrets of Brewing Mead

        Wander into the world of mead brewing and find yourself immersed in a fascinating journey spanning centuries and continents.
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        The Knights in White Lycra

        Each year a group of cyclists head to the deep north towards Tohoku’s vast rice fields and coastal trails to help transform the lives of neglected children.
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        Sea to Table in Yamagata

        An unforgettable way to intimately explore the Shonai Region in Yamagata is a culinary experience bringing bounty of the sea straight to your table.
    • Autumn
    • Winter
      • video

        CAMP3 Clubhouse in Madarao

        Keith Stubbs, a veteran in the snowboard industry, transitioned from rider to coach and instructor trainer for Snowboard Instruction New Zealand. After coaching in various Japanese resorts, he has established a permanent base in Madarao, outlining his plans for the area and future snowboard endeavors.
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        New Horizons in Shiretoko

        During another epic powder season, two seasoned winter sports enthusiasts traded their snowboard bags for camera bags and traveled to Eastern Hokkaido to explore the frozen landscape and broaden their winter horizons.
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        Silent Resilience

        Curling athlete Sayuri Matsuhashi’s journey to the top of her sport is an inspiration to deaf athletes and women juggling their roles as mothers while also pursuing their professional dreams.
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        Heritage Hunting in Hokkaido

        Travelers venturing beyond Hokkaido's popular winter resorts will discover a land with a rich cultural and natural history, a proud indigenous people and a community striving to preserve their heritage.
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        Shizukuishi

        Northern Honshu’s Iwate Prefecture, known for heavy snowfall, features Shizukuishi—a powder-rich resort area with views of Mt. Iwate. Snow enthusiasts seeking lesser-known gems can enjoy exceptional snow quality and uncrowded resorts, including Shizukuishi Ski Resort, Amihari Onsen Ski Resort, and Iwate Kogen Snow Park, offering affordability and traditional hospitality.
    • Near Tokyo
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        Getting Dirty in Japan

        “Getting Dirty in Japan” is about getting out of your comfort zone and into some exciting outdoor adventures and destinations in Japan.
    • Near Kyoto
    • All Regions
    • Article Map
    • Ocean and Beach
      • getting dirty in japan

        Getting Dirty in Japan

        “Getting Dirty in Japan” is about getting out of your comfort zone and into some exciting outdoor adventures and destinations in Japan.
    • River and Lake
      • ainu tour daniel moore outdoor japan hokkaido

        Heritage Hunting in Hokka...

        Travelers venturing beyond Hokkaido's popular winter resorts will discover a land with a rich cultural and natural history, a proud indigenous people and a community striving to preserve their heritage.
        getting dirty in japan

        Getting Dirty in Japan

        “Getting Dirty in Japan” is about getting out of your comfort zone and into some exciting outdoor adventures and destinations in Japan.
    • Mountain and Land
    • Sky
      • getting dirty in japan

        Getting Dirty in Japan

        “Getting Dirty in Japan” is about getting out of your comfort zone and into some exciting outdoor adventures and destinations in Japan.
    • Snow and Ice
      • video

        CAMP3 Clubhouse in Madarao

        Keith Stubbs, a veteran in the snowboard industry, transitioned from rider to coach and instructor trainer for Snowboard Instruction New Zealand. After coaching in various Japanese resorts, he has established a permanent base in Madarao, outlining his plans for the area and future snowboard endeavors.
        shiretoko hokkaido outdoor japan

        New Horizons in Shiretoko

        During another epic powder season, two seasoned winter sports enthusiasts traded their snowboard bags for camera bags and traveled to Eastern Hokkaido to explore the frozen landscape and broaden their winter horizons.
        sayuri matsuhashi double role curling athlete japan outdoor

        Silent Resilience

        Curling athlete Sayuri Matsuhashi’s journey to the top of her sport is an inspiration to deaf athletes and women juggling their roles as mothers while also pursuing their professional dreams.
        shizukuishi skiing snowboarding outdoor japan

        Shizukuishi

        Northern Honshu’s Iwate Prefecture, known for heavy snowfall, features Shizukuishi—a powder-rich resort area with views of Mt. Iwate. Snow enthusiasts seeking lesser-known gems can enjoy exceptional snow quality and uncrowded resorts, including Shizukuishi Ski Resort, Amihari Onsen Ski Resort, and Iwate Kogen Snow Park, offering affordability and traditional hospitality.
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        Northern Shinshu’s Secret Stash

        A weak yen, revenge travel, and excellent ski conditions have led to high demand, booking out popular resorts like Hakuba and Nozawa Onsen this year. Fortunately, lesser-known gems like Togari Onsen, near Nozawa Onsen and Madarao, offer charming alternatives for powder seekers.
    • Travel
      • video

        CAMP3 Clubhouse in Madarao

        Keith Stubbs, a veteran in the snowboard industry, transitioned from rider to coach and instructor trainer for Snowboard Instruction New Zealand. After coaching in various Japanese resorts, he has established a permanent base in Madarao, outlining his plans for the area and future snowboard endeavors.
        shiretoko hokkaido outdoor japan

        New Horizons in Shiretoko

        During another epic powder season, two seasoned winter sports enthusiasts traded their snowboard bags for camera bags and traveled to Eastern Hokkaido to explore the frozen landscape and broaden their winter horizons.
        sayuri matsuhashi double role curling athlete japan outdoor

        Silent Resilience

        Curling athlete Sayuri Matsuhashi’s journey to the top of her sport is an inspiration to deaf athletes and women juggling their roles as mothers while also pursuing their professional dreams.
        ainu tour daniel moore outdoor japan hokkaido

        Heritage Hunting in Hokkaido

        Travelers venturing beyond Hokkaido's popular winter resorts will discover a land with a rich cultural and natural history, a proud indigenous people and a community striving to preserve their heritage.
        shizukuishi skiing snowboarding outdoor japan

        Shizukuishi

        Northern Honshu’s Iwate Prefecture, known for heavy snowfall, features Shizukuishi—a powder-rich resort area with views of Mt. Iwate. Snow enthusiasts seeking lesser-known gems can enjoy exceptional snow quality and uncrowded resorts, including Shizukuishi Ski Resort, Amihari Onsen Ski Resort, and Iwate Kogen Snow Park, offering affordability and traditional hospitality.
    • Food and Drinks
      • video

        CAMP3 Clubhouse in Madarao

        Keith Stubbs, a veteran in the snowboard industry, transitioned from rider to coach and instructor trainer for Snowboard Instruction New Zealand. After coaching in various Japanese resorts, he has established a permanent base in Madarao, outlining his plans for the area and future snowboard endeavors.
        shiretoko hokkaido outdoor japan

        New Horizons in Shiretoko

        During another epic powder season, two seasoned winter sports enthusiasts traded their snowboard bags for camera bags and traveled to Eastern Hokkaido to explore the frozen landscape and broaden their winter horizons.
        sayuri matsuhashi double role curling athlete japan outdoor

        Silent Resilience

        Curling athlete Sayuri Matsuhashi’s journey to the top of her sport is an inspiration to deaf athletes and women juggling their roles as mothers while also pursuing their professional dreams.
        ainu tour daniel moore outdoor japan hokkaido

        Heritage Hunting in Hokkaido

        Travelers venturing beyond Hokkaido's popular winter resorts will discover a land with a rich cultural and natural history, a proud indigenous people and a community striving to preserve their heritage.
        shizukuishi skiing snowboarding outdoor japan

        Shizukuishi

        Northern Honshu’s Iwate Prefecture, known for heavy snowfall, features Shizukuishi—a powder-rich resort area with views of Mt. Iwate. Snow enthusiasts seeking lesser-known gems can enjoy exceptional snow quality and uncrowded resorts, including Shizukuishi Ski Resort, Amihari Onsen Ski Resort, and Iwate Kogen Snow Park, offering affordability and traditional hospitality.
    • Races and Events
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        Silent Resilience

        Curling athlete Sayuri Matsuhashi’s journey to the top of her sport is an inspiration to deaf athletes and women juggling their roles as mothers while also pursuing their professional dreams.

        Winter News and Notes

        Check out the latest news and winter events held at ski resorts all over Japan in 2024!
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        In nearly e...

Kokusai Couple

Behind every great man is a tiny woman. Isn’t that how the saying goes? In the case of Pat and Naomi O’Keefe, this axiom especially holds true.

hokkaido outdoor adventures

Pat O’Keeffe climbed off of a horse in his native Australia and took a road spanning several continents that wound up in the training stables of Hokkaido almost 15 years ago. He met and married a Japanese woman who came to be known as “Shorty,” and they soon were at the helm of a rafting company that has chased adventures throughout the whitewater world.

Pony-tail Pat

Horseshow jumping requires a combination of strength, style and nerve. Back in his clean-cut days, Pat made the Olympic team but was denied a chance to medal when Australia boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games.

After growing up around horses, he decided to walk away from them altogether, but this didn’t last long. A few years later he returned to the stables, finding joy and success in breaking race horses, a part-time career which he continues to this day.

Pat’s intrepid traveling days began in the 1980s. Any adventure sufficed. He spent two years running grueling four-month overland tours from Istanbul to Katmandu for a company called New Frontier. It was around then he discovered another hidden talent—photography.
Spend a night at Hokkaido Outdoor Adventures (HOA), their own tour company, and you will see prints and slide shows of the thousands of professional-quality photographs he has taken.
What you might not immediately notice as you soak in his stories is the small Japanese woman relaxing on a sofa or hustling in the shadows.

Get ‘Shorty’

Naomi O’Keeffe is a force. The HOA office is her domain. Do not let the soft reggae music or the silly staff photos on the wall fool you. The company is a tightly run machine. Naomi oversees everything from bookings to photograph sales. It makes your head spin to think of the thousands of countless details she takes care of with an easy laugh.
   
After high school, Naomi followed her mother’s path and became a nurse. She left her hometown of Kamifurano and spent six years in Sapporo, studying and then working in the public health sector.

Pat was living in a village called Tomikawa at the time, working as the only freelance race horse breaker in Japan. They met in Sapporo, and Naomi eventually moved to Tomikawa. The plan for her to stay at home while Pat worked lasted two months.
“I got bored,” she said, laughing.

She began working at the Tomikawa Ekimae Clinic. Then, with two other partners, she and Pat started HOA. They soon moved company headquarters to an unused elementary school in the town of Hidaka which lies in central Hokkaido close to the Sarugawa and Mukawa rivers.
Naomi worked summers in the company and winters at the clinic. She acquired a thirst for travel herself, accompanying Pat on excursions throughout Asia.

Watch the two of them talk, Pat’s long dreadlocks still dripping from a kayaking trip and Naomi tucked into a swivel chair, and you can see how HOA grew. Pat fires random ideas related to all facets of the business, and Naomi is often one step ahead of him, having already filled out the paperwork or made the appropriate phone call. The way they complete one another’s thoughts appears rehearsed.

Living among employees with no distractions in silent Hidaka is a 24-hour-a-day job that presents personal challenges for the family. But Pat insists he got into rafting for the lifestyle. For Pat & Shorty, the line between work and play is often blurry.

First Descents

Though not a world-class kayaker himself, Pat has taken part in a number of major expeditions, most notably handling rafting support for renowned paddlers such as Mike Abbott and Steve Fisher on a first descent down tributaries of Myanmar’s towering Maykha River.    
He recently returned from one of the largest commercial trips in the world covering much of that same terrain. A five-star resort called the Malhika Lodge is also being built in the area as part of the HOA web.

Nepal’s Ultimate Descents rafting company owner Dave Allardice has been involved in a few harrowing first runs of his own and was part of the first Maykha expedition. Pat has helped him make the Last Resort lodge, base-camp for Ultimate Descents, a must-visit for any whitewater enthusiast.
As if that were not enough, HOA has recently lent support to an up-and-coming rafting company in Thailand called Siam River Adventures, which runs Grade III and IV trips on the Maytag.

On the home front, Pat spearheaded an effort to bring superstars Eric Southwick, Clay Wright and wunderkind Pat Keller over to paddle creeks and other untouched territory in Hokkaido. During the summer season, HOA handles a steady stream of school travel rafting, and the enterprise is looking to branch into an art and photo gallery in Hidaka.

Family Ties

The couple’s 3-year-old daughter Kay is as active and fearless as her parents. This past winter, Naomi finally stopped working at the clinic, insisting that “chasing after Kay is a full-time job.” Both Pat and Naomi have made the transition to parenthood easily and will undoubtedly be able to balance this role with those of photographer, office manager, race horse breaker and adventurers.

WEB CONNECTION

Hokkaido Outdoor Adventures: www.rafting-hoa.co.jp
The Last Resort: www.trlnepal.com
Siam River Adventures: www.siamrivers.com
Malhika Lodge: www.axmyanmar.com

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