Nachi Falls is counted as top 3 beautiful falls in Japan. It is a half of the Kumano river, and waterfalls into down almost vertically. This is the highest as one step falls in Japan. It locates town “Nachikatsuura”, Wakayama prefecture. Although it is absolutely far from many airports and stations, you will enjoy sacred places if you get there.
Nachi falls is on the northwest side of Town “Nachikatuura”. Going down stone stairs and pass-thru gates, you can see the fall which is 133 meters tall 13 meters wide. This ground of waterfall was formed when the lava cooled and hardened. It is quite so hard that not collapse easily. If you pay a ticket fee to pass thru, you can get a closer look.
Since the old Japanese religion was like nature worship, the old Japanese had worshipped Nachi Falls and mountains as God’s body for more than 1500 years ago. It is said that many ascetic monks trained hard on this mountain. So, we can say that this mountain and falls itself is a large shrine. The Nachi falls were registered as a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is on a remote place from urban, nevertheless, many visitors are still coming.
These pictures are captured at the shrine. You can see “Ema” at this place. Do you know what the “Ema” is? “Ema” is a board that is a place to write your hope, dream, or ambition. You will enjoy just seeing many dreams if you are able to read the Japanese language. I love to see “Ema”. I introduce some of the contents. 1st one is saying,” I hope to get married to my girlfriend, and be together with her”. What a lovely hope! 2nd one is saying, “I hope to enroll in a university, I will become an astronaut!”. What a great person. 3rd one is saying, “I hope to buy a Porsche”. Is that a dream?? Anyway, looks fun, right?
As you can see in the 4th picture, Almost all these Ema were surrounding the stone sphere. This stone sphere used to be on the bottom of Nachi falls. It must have been polished with splashed water for a long time. Anyway hope he buys Porsche someday.
You can see religious buildings nearby. You can take a picture of the building and Nachi falls at the same time.
