Takachiho Gorge Boat Rental Reservations

This forum has been great for information! So thank you. I am wondering if there is a trick for boat rental reservations for the Gorge. Do I need to get on the date and time exactly at 8am the day of the reservation to secure a boat? I see that every single time and date is filled within the two week reservation time. Is there a trick? I am looking for a reservation in later April and hope to secure one boat.

It seems they are very popular. I am not sure why. Maybe because they allocate only a small number of boats to online reservations. Maybe because the system is taken advantage of by abusers or is not working properly otherwise. I am not sure. It generally makes not a good impression with respect to its design and user-friendliness.

But it seems to me that, indeed, you need to be fast. 9am, not 8am, is the time when they become available. I recommend to try it then. And if it still does not work, give it up.

I just confirmed now at 9am that 15 slots every hour have indeed become available for reservation. Available slots are already starting to decrease.

More than half of the slots are gone after 10 minutes.

After 15 minutes all slots are gone. And that is for a Wednesday. As you can see, it is possible if you are ready at 9am.

Another possible hurdle is the actual reservation process. I did not look at it, but judging from the rest of the website, I suspect it may my unintuitive and complicated.