Nippon Between the Light

Stop me if you've heard this before, or know it from experience, but summer in Japan is hot! With temperatures often exceeding 30°C (86°F), and humidity floating around the 60-80% mark, it can be somewhat claustrophobic to find yourself wedged between 30 Japanese businessmen as you ride the train from Kyoto away from the city. My time spent in Nippon had been fraught with culture shock and intolerable heat, but the good kind where you know you'll want more once you've left. I'd been so caught up in catching the right train, speaking in formalities and drinking cold coffee from a can (vending machines, everywhere) that i'd found myself agreeing to anything so as to cool down and shed some of the weight of travel. Turns out you carry a lot of it in your shoulders, and I was in dire need of a swim.
That was just where we were headed. My good friend Ben, who had been living somewhere between Kyoto and Osaka in a 'small' city known as Nagaokakyo, knew of a watering hole that was rather well utilised by the few whom were in the know. "It's at a train station called Hozukyo", he divulged, "under a bridge. It's pretty sweet".
With what remaining fluid i had left in my body now entirely made up of Suntory Boss 'Rainbow Mountain Blend' kohi in a can, I was up for anything. As I squeezed my body into the packed train compartment along with my mate, a Japanese girl called Maiko and his new Californian neighbour Laura, both suffering a little less than the two Kiwis in the heat, it was clear this was something of a normality to the businessmen that paid no mind to our intrusion nor our state of walking fluidity.
Pulling up to the station, seemingly just a bridge upon which the train paused briefly, we managed to slip, quite literally, out onto the platform. There was no mistaking it, this was simply a bridge between two grassy hills, of which Japan appears to have endless; beautiful as they are, mind you. Despite my trepidation, down we wandered into the valley, satisfaction seeming less and less likely with each gasping breath i pulled from what air there was left to extract.
Still, inspired by my friend's determination, we finally burst through the trees to discover a swimming hole better than i could have hoped. A river running down, primed for body-surfing; a big rock face to our left, seemingly exposed for which to jump from; & beautiful, cool water to bathe my sorry self within.
Who'd have guessed treasure was to be found under a bridge, only a train ride away.