Nachi Waterfall (Nachi-no-taki [那智の滝])

The Nachi Waterfall (Nachi-no-taki [那智の滝]; also Nachi Falls) is said to be

It was a shame that we were rushed on our visit here thanks to an utterly inconvenient boat shuttle schedule that linked the Hotel Urashima to the rest of Kii-Katsuura (and that shuttle doesn't run between 14:50 and 19:00 as well as between 7:35 and 10:00; what a useless schedule!).

There were two main viewing areas for the falls.

We reached the lower viewing deck (we paid 300 円/person) from the "falls front" stop (at least that's how I translated the kanji for 前滝). From there, we went through a torii (you see lots of these archways in Japan), then down several steps towards a shadowy shrine with a teasing view of the falls between trees. After paying to get by the kiosk, we went up some more steps for a much better (though sometimes mistier) view of the falls and the rocky cascades at its base.

The upper viewing deck (we paid 200 円/person) was actually from within a pagoda nearby the Sanseigantoji Temple, which itself was well worth a visit (but we were rushed so didn't give it the attention we would've liked). The benefit of this view (there was a hole in the mesh on the top floor for photographs) was a more eye-level view of the falls above the tree line.

From outside the pagoda itself, this building also yielded nice juxtaposition shots with Nachi Waterfall like the photo you see at the top of this page. You can reach this pagoda from the "temple front" stop, which is one minute later than the "falls front" stop, or you can do what we did and just walk up a bunch of stairs linking the temple with the "falls front" stop.

Under more relaxed circumstances, we could've easily spent at least a half-day here to not only check out the Nachi Waterfall from its various vantage points, but also the shrines around here to perhaps get a sense of how the waterfall might have influenced the spirituality here. However, my notes indicated that we barely spent just under a hour seeing the waterfall from both its base and from the pagoda at the top. All the logistics (the boat ride and bus ride plus all the walking/running) chewed into the 2 hours we had available.

Just to give you an idea of our adventurous day to get to this waterfall, our logistics broke down as follows:

1. Catch earliest train from Kyoto to Shin Osaka at 6:09
2. Catch long ride from Shin Osaka to Kii-Katsuura at 7:35
3. Arrive at Kii-Katsuura (11:35) and catch boat with luggage and all to Hotel Urashima (11:55)
4. After leaving luggage at reception, caught next boat back to town at 12:45
5. Catch 13:00 bus from Kii-Katsuura Station to the falls
6. Catch 14:16 bus from the falls front back to Kii-Katsuura Station
7. Catch the critical 14:50 boat from Kii-Katsuura dock to Hotel Urashima; if we missed that one, we would be stranded in town until 19:00!

PS: Had we waited until the next day to do this excursion, the boat shuttle didn't run between 7:35 and 10:00. We had to check out and leave for Osaka on that day. How useless was that!?!

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Julie running through the torii to get to the lower viewing deck

Direct view of Nachi Waterfall from shrine area below the lower viewing deck

Direct view of the falls from the lower viewing deck

Running up the steps to the temple

Almost at the temple!

Distant look at pagoda at Nachi Waterfall; could be better, but building to our right was closed

Closeup view from the pagoda

Running to the falls front bus stop

Made it JIT to falls front bus stop, but now have to sweat the stress of that damned boat back to the hotel

Imagine our relief when we finally made it to the boat that returned us to the Hotel Urashima

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Deliberate bottom up sweep of the falls from the lower viewing deck


Quick still movie of the falls with pagoda


Quick bottom up sweep of the waterfall as seen from the pagoda

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TRIP REPORTS

• June 2, 2009

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