We stopped at the Bandokoro-daki stop (see directions below), where we went on a short walk descending down some steps towards a very misty overlook platform. The falls was definitely no slouch as it forcefully tumbled in a trapezoidal shape some 35m in height I believe. But with the force of the water when we saw it, there was a high volume of spray that wafted right up from the base of the falls and right into the sheltered platform. The net effect was getting a clean photograph was next to impossible.

The walking path continued further downstream towards some hydro scheme. It appeared the path continued even further down the river, but we didn't explore any further than this.

Heading back the other way, we walked on a path that went further upstream above the Bandokoro Waterfall. It was a pleasant riverside walkway passing by a pair of other small but fairly picturesque waterfalls. Eventually, another 30 minutes or so of walking, we reached the main road again where we decided to walk back down the hill towards the Bandokoro stop. Had we persisted on remaining in the area, it would've been another 2.9km walk uphill towards the visitor center.

It turned out that after visiting the Bandokoro Waterfall, I think we had to either catch a different connecting bus at the National Vacation Village to get to the Norikura dake passing by the two other waterfalls we wanted to go to or do some serious walking given the inconvenient bus schedules.

In any case, our itinerary turned out to be the following:

1. Caught 6:00 train (not on JR network) from Matsumoto to Shin-Shimashima Station
2. Caught 7:00 bus (I think) from Shin-Shimashima Station to Bandokoro-daki stop
3. Arrived at Bandokoro-daki stop at 8:00 and started walking
4. Caught 10:18 bus back to Shin-Shimashima Station
5. Around 11:20, waited for train back to Matsumoto and arrived there at 12:00

As for the drama regarding our bus situation and language barrier, the misunderstanding was that we got a discounted fair that included both the train ride from Matsumoto as well as the bus ride that went up to the Shirahone Onsen Spa. But along the way, we thought we could get off the bus at the Bandokoro Stop, then either walk or catch other buses continuing uphill towards the other two waterfalls in the Norikura Highlands. Unfortunately, the discount bus tickets we got only worked for one or two buses in each direction and their schedules were such that it was impossible to visit all the waterfalls while still being able to return to Matsumoto.

The moment we caught buses outside the timetable given on our discount tickets to Shirahone Onsen Spa, they confiscated our ticket, tried to return some money (which was far less than what we paid) and we were supposed to pay the remaining fares as we went on the buses from here on out. We thought we were getting ripped off, but in actuality, they were making us pay a la carte plus a penalty change fee for switching out of the discount ticket.