I participated in the pre-event for Shiribetsu Fest 2024, held the day before the main festival on the Shiribetsu River. The day included a friendship downriver with litter collection under the bridges, a packraft exhibition race, and a shared discussion on river rescue scenarios. Play, safety, and respect for the field — all woven naturally into the same day.
Paddling while picking up litter shows you things you’d never notice on an ordinary run. Debris snagged during high water. Garbage thrown from bridges. The river is beautiful — and that beauty makes the contrast sharper.
Please don’t throw anything from bridges. Ever.
This was my second year participating in Shiribetsu Fest in a support role — behind the scenes, helping things run smoothly. For me, someone who came back to the river through packrafting, the people who gather at this event carry a particular significance.
Enthusiastic university paddlers. River guides from across Hokkaido. Veterans who have spent decades on the water. Paddlers building the river SUP scene. And among the faces — a former guiding colleague I used to work alongside years ago.
Different ages, different roles, different disciplines — all brought together by a single shared thread: a love of rivers. Paddling the same water, sharing the same hours. Gatherings that dissolve the boundary between student and professional, between disciplines, are genuinely rare in Hokkaido, and genuinely valuable.
The packraft exhibition race the day before the festival was great to see — and I hope participation grows further next year. It’s less about competition and more about giving people a direct, physical experience of what packrafting can do. As a format for sharing what the sport is capable of, it works well.
At the event I brought along Nobdody’s products to show and sell — the Soli (flat-brimmed skull cap) and the Guru (flat-brimmed full balaclava) — with size samples and stock on hand.
To everyone who tried them on and made a purchase: thank you. These are designed exactly for the cold wind and spray of Hokkaido from autumn into early winter. I hope they serve you well on the water.
The Soli donated as a raffle prize seemed to add a little extra fun to the lottery too, which was great to see.
The reason I came back to the river isn’t only the river itself. It’s also this — the people who cross generations and disciplines to come together, to laugh and learn and think side by side in the same current.
Shiribetsu Fest is one of Hokkaido’s autumn traditions worth holding onto. It reminded me of that, clearly and quietly.
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