Our Friday Night Video this week is a trip to Japan to climb the country's highest waterfall: Shomyo Falls in Toyama. Sawanobori is the Japanese art of climbing a mountain river to its source, involving scrambling up gullies, ravines and waterfalls. As a sport, sawanobori has been practised for over 100 years, but rivers have long played a crucial role in Japan's mountainous jungle regions as the paths of least resistance for transit. Waterfalls are also sacred places in Japan, believed to be the dwellings of gods. James Pearson, Caroline Ciavaldini, Matty Hong, Yuji Hirayama and Toru Nakajima take on the challenge.

Traditionally, climbers wore woven straw sandals (waraji) and robes, but today, participants are fortunate to benefit from modern equipment: waterproof shells, 'ninja boots' (as James calls them) with felt soles and hoof-like toes, and rubber kitchen gloves (better than the expensive purpose-built sawanobori gloves, Toru reportedly advised James). Despite all this gear, the likelihood remains that you'll get a more than a bit wet...