Kaiun Bungy

I made an online reservation to jump on October 8 at 10 am. I've wanted to do bungee for many years, but the options near me in California were very limited and unappealing. Since I had a three week trip in Japan I looked at the various Bungy Japan options and this was the simplest for me to get to since I was in Osaka. I could take train to Oji station and catch bus 42, which runs once an hour during operating hours.

When you get off the stop if you take the bus, walk up the hill to the Kaiun Bungy cabin - or if you're like me and walk up the other side you will have to cross the bridge where the jumps are to reach the cabin, to check in, fill out waivers, weigh you, read the instructions etc. They have English waivers and instructions and speak some English. They also have small lockers to keep your stuff in. When your time is coming up and you do the paperwork, pay, you step into the harness, they secure you and have you yank down on the straps to tighten. Also you will have a wrist GoPro attached. And they walk you through what do after the jump and have you demonstrate it: you attach the carabiner they lower to you to the hook in front of you with the red mark and make an "O" with your hands over your head to pull you back up.

They will radio to the bridge to see when you can go over and you'll get escorted over to the bridge site and wait your turn. They'll be playing music like, "Jump Around" by House of Pain. There they will weigh you again. If you have the locker key with you, you leave it in a plastic bin, when it's your turn they have you step over the rail into the jump area. You'll be strapped in, they'll have you sit down, they'll go over the instructions again on what to do and have you show them again how to hook the carabiner and make the "O" with your arms plus turn on the GoPro.

When it's time you walk over to a beam with your toes at the edge, stick your arms out, look ahead at the bridge across from you, and after they count down from 5 you jump out, preferably head first, and within seconds it's over. There's a little bounce back, but not high enough to touch the bridge and you won't touch the water, and after a few bounces they'll lower the carabiner down to you to hook so they can pull you back up.

You get unhooked, go back to the cabin, get unharnessed. They transfer the GoPro to a USB stick for you to take home, and give you a certificate of your jump. You can jump again for a discount or jump at any of their sites in the future for a discount. I would've loved to go again, but I had to catch a Shinkansen to Tokyo in the afternoon and as I mentioned, that bus 42 runs like once an hour. The queue went pretty quickly that day, I was done in under an hour, but when I got back to the cabin there was a group and I didn't want to risk missing a bus since they run so infrequently.

Great job by the staff, hopefully I can travel back to Japan and do it again.