Nunobiki Waterfall (Nunobiki-no-taki [布引の滝])

The Nunobiki Waterfall (Nunobiki-no-taki [布引の滝]; Nunobiki Falls) is actually a series of four waterfalls plus smaller cascades and man-modified waterfalls. It was really a waterfall we didn't count on seeing, but managed to find out that it was very convenient to get to plus we had some extra time during the waning moments of our time on Honshu (the main island in

Regarding the waterfalls, here's the lowdown. Of the four natural waterfalls that make up the Nunobiki Falls, we were only able to photograph three of them as falls #2 was almost completely obstructed from our line of sight. The first waterfall (where its lower half was man-modified) was seen after the about 15 minutes of walking. Another 15 minutes later, we saw a viewpoint of both the 3rd and 4th waterfalls (again, the 2nd one was hard to see). And another 20 minutes later of more uphill walking beyond the last of the waterfalls, we reached an overlook of the panorama of the city of Kobe backed by its harbor. All told, we spent about 90 minutes round trip where we took our time.

The walking paths actually continued to go in various directions beyond this overlook, but we didn't explore where they went. So I'd imagine it would be real easy to spend the better part of the day just meandering and exploring what this place had to offer.

We thought of the Nunobiki Waterfall as more of a locals waterfall because it seemed kind of obscure and somewhat off the tourist radar. Although it maybe a known attraction in Kobe, the thing with this falls was that it provided a relatively peaceful and convenient escape from the city of Kobe, and we could argue that it was an urban waterfall given how easily accessible it was from the city (the walk started from right behind one of the subway stations). But the park-like atmosphere with cable cars quietly going by behind the trees above us while we contemplated the panorama of the city made for a memorable way to end off our time on Japan's main island before heading to Hokkaido.

As for our impressions of the waterfall itself, we thought it was somewhat on par with some of our best local So Cal Waterfalls. It definitely didn't overwhelm us with its volume nor its size, but that wasn't really the point.

Now since I'm finding myself writing the word Kobe a lot, I do have to mention that Lakers player Kobe Bryant was named after this city after his parents' visit this part of Japan. Just a little trivia I thought I'd throw in there since our local team did win the 2009 NBA Finals this year (woohoo!).

We just persisted on the road (trying to read the kanji carefully so we didn't end up trespassing into someone's place) until we knew we were on the path to the waterfalls.

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From humble beginnings beneath the Shin Kobe Station...

...to green though you do have to kind of make sense of the kanji to navigate between some of the residences and forks here

The first Nunobiki Waterfall called Mentaki (plus a man-modified tier below); this one's said to be 19m tall not counting the man-modified tier below I think

Just the first waterfall

Ascending beyond the first waterfall

Near the hard-to-see 2nd waterfall where you can see man-modified cascades plus the walkway

The third falls called Meotodaki

Looking at the fourth and last Nunobiki Waterfall called Ontaki. Together with the Meotodaki, it's said to be 43m in cumulative height

View of Kobe and harbor

A shrine I saw on the way up to the overlook

View of Kobe and harbor

Cable cars above the urban park

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The first falls along with the neighboring man-modified tier


The third and fourth tiers

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TRIP REPORTS

• June 4, 2009

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