Four Springs

Most of the reason the Redhead and I set off on the marathon tour to visit Nikko was the promise of one of the three great waterfalls in Japan. What we didn’t realize was that although the 2nd waterfall is too far south for a day trip, the 3rd (Fukuroda-no-Taki ) is 30 km from here. A mere 45 minutes it turns out, and that was stuck behind grandma for most of the way there.

Since I’d worked plenty of hours on the weekend, I played hookey this afternoon and headed out. I felt like a kid with a snow day – except it’s never been 90deg and sunny for any snow day I’ve ever gotten. Part of the attraction, in fact, was that going north into the mountains HAD to be chasing cooler weather.

I’d never gone north from here, and didn’t really expect anything much different. But the people at work who raved about the countryside were actually right. It’s still rice paddies and country towns – don’t suppose differently. But it gets less populated and even greener if that’s possible. And once you get into the hills and start crossing streams, it’s just really pretty. I REALLY wish I had the kayak!

Fukuroda is apparently a rather popular attraction – there are signs every 5 km (in romanji even – roman alphabet). Once you get within 5km, they’re every 1km. And the final two signs aren’t just words, they’re full color picture billboards. So if you can’t find this one, I just don’t know what to say.

Once you get there and figure out where to park, you pay the lady 300yen for the privilege of walking through the tunnel to the falls. I never thought I’d see anything to top Muir Woods’ paved trees, but the paved, ramped, tunneled path to Fukuroda takes the cake. The falls themselves though ... extremely pretty. It’s named “Four Springs” because there are 4 separate falls, three of which are visible from the lookout point. Apparently it’s also a play on “four seasons” because the waterfall changes appearance so much throughout the year. In the winter, it even completely freezes over and they use it for ice climbing.

The lookout point is at the bottom of the falls and there’s a path across (a miniature suspension bridge that wobbles way too much for comfort) and up the side. Assuming that this would bring me out to the top of the falls, I stupidly started climbing. And kept climbing. And climbing. I did get a glimpse of the 4th waterfall through the trees and when the path started snaking around, I got all excited about the spectacular view I was going to get. That was the only thought that kept me going considering that it was, if possible, even hotter and more humid than it had been at home. So much for the “it’ll be cooler in the mountains” theory.

Eventually it became clear that this path was never going to get me my spectacular view of the falls. Why, then, did I continue? Because I’ve been married to XDirtPusher too long? Related to too many Germans? I’m an idiot? I don’t know. I think I’ll claim heatstroke - I was just convinced that the view from the top had to be worth the pain I’d already suffered. After about an hour of climbing concrete steps (I’ve never seen so much concrete out in the middle of nowhere!), I got to the top. Now, in the US, this would have gotten me a windswept view for miles because they had chopped down all the trees at the summit. In Europe, this would have gotten the view and a coffee shop. Possibly even an ice cream. In Japan? I got a bench facing a tree. No, I am NOT kidding – see for yourself!

They really expect people to climb 1km of concrete (more often than not at a 30+ degree slope) to sit in front of a tree. The only view you get is hanging out on one of the tree branches to see the valley below. There really are no words to voice my disappointment.

My advice? The falls and the ice cream cone at the bottom were both definitely worth the price of admission. Skip the steps up Mt. Tsukiore though.