Nachi Falls(那智滝) and Nachi Taisha(那智大社)

16-June-2016 - The next morning, the rain stopped. I woke up super early so that we could catch the first bus out to Nachi Falls. I think the first bus was like 7am? I only have half a day after all as I needed to check into Urashima by 2pm. So off we went to Nachi Falls!

First stop was to Nachi Taisha, one of the three temples along the path of the pilgrimage. As usual, it was an uphill climb before reaching the holy ground. This place was a lot bigger than Hongu Taisha, and it is connected to the famous pagoda and a short hike down to Nachi Falls.

And then there was the beautiful pagoda view with Nachi Fall at the background. This was one of those famous shot almost every ad on Nachi tourism have.

As I've mentioned before, these were still in the pilgrimage path, so Kumano Kodo can be found connecting all the places. Above shows one of the path into the mountains. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be on any path of the ancient road! I really wish I could hike the whole trail one day. Sigh.

Anyway, we continued down the ancient path towards Nachi Falls. The road, the trees, the sunlight was so surreal that we took one shot together showing the beautiful path behind us. 

And below the path, is the entrance to the tallest waterfall in Japan - Nachi. There were some tourist to be seen here, mostly older crowd, and they had some hard time walking towards the falls as it was slippery and an uphill climb. And if you pay a little bit extra, you can get closure to the water fall. Highly recommended since you get less crowd, and you can really stand below the water fall with the water splashing slightly over you. 

In fact, if you pay a little more, you can drink the waters from the fall using this special plate! I don't recommend this as who knows how clean is the water? But my husband went ahead a tried it....

Anyway, I did managed a video of the falls, not a very good one, but still....

Ref:
Nachi Taisha(那智大社)
Nachi Falls (那智滝)