Takane Otaki – Yamanashi
One of my favorite things to do while traveling the backroads of rural Japan is to discover all the little waterfalls that this country is blessed with. Japan is very mountainous and very wet, so there’s plenty of opportunities for waterfalls and sometimes it seems that every village or every little town has their own handful of scenic waterfalls! Most of these are so “common” by Japanese standards that they are hardly marked on any maps, the only way to find them is to keep an eye out for the little signs that mark the entrance to the trail that will lead them to you. Usually there’s no one else there but sometimes you meet a few other tourists or locals. A couple of years ago while traveling in Yamanashi prefecture not too far from Tokyo I stumbled upon one of those little signs, for a fall called Takane Otaki (高根大滝) within the city borders of Hokuto City (北杜市). Takene Otaki is just one of the little falls in Yamanashi and similar to the thousands of falls you can find anywhere in Japan, but if you find yourself on the back roads of Japan you know what to look out for!
Can’t we just go and exchange the whole world for places like this? I would give up the comfort we have…
The whole world used to be like this, just nature…! But humans can never leave good enough alone, and once the first tree is felled it’s just a matter of time before the motorway and concrete arrives…