Visit HYOGO

The Kurotaki Falls can be found in Yokawa-cho in Miki City in the center of Hyogo Prefecture, and are a soothing waterfall destination cocooned in the calmness of nature. Head down the path, surrounded by trees, to see the cascade quietly appear. The Kurotaki Falls are characterized by their two steps, known as Odaki and Medaki; the water flows down a drop that is four meters tall but stretches across 30 meters in width. The broad river width has led the local people to call this the “Niagara of Miki.” The curtain of water that falls past the rock surface as if gliding is so beautiful you might find yourself holding your breath! Winter sees many days when the temperature is below freezing, and you can see the “ice-fall” formed when the waterfall freezes. Visitors can enjoy the different appearances of these falls in the four seasons.

Michi-no-Eki Yokawa, a roadside station that can be used as a car park, also has a footbath, hot spring, and restaurant. Why not visit this together with the falls?

The Tonomine Highlands in Kamikawa Town in Hyogo Prefecture is a magnificent plateau stretching across an elevation of 900 meters and known for its mass of silver grass. Its awesome scale and fairytale-like beauty has made it famous as a location for movies and NHK’s long-running “Taiga” drama series.

The Tonomine Highlands‘ greatest appeal is its silver grass. In the fall, it is completely covered by masses of silver grass that sway and glimmer in the wind, creating breath-taking loveliness. Walking through the highlands, colored with gold, is like being lost in another world!

These highlands boast an expansive area around the size of 19 Tokyo Domes, but there are wooden trails to make walking easy, enabling you to take a leisurely stroll. Make sure you bring a coat or other clothing to keep off the cold during the silver grass season.

You should also drop in to the Tonomine Shizen Koryukan when visiting the highlands. The attached terrace offers wonderful sweeping highland views, and you can also enjoy superb charcoal-cooked dango (salty-sweet rice dumplings). The neighboring single-story soba eatery Koryuan serves freshly made and cooked soba noodles.

It's not just the silver grass in the fall; the Tonomine Highlands are attractive all year round, throughout the four seasons, with new greenery from spring to summer and snowscapes in the winter. The highest point offers extensive 360-degree views that only visitors to the highlands can enjoy, and depending on when you visit, its appearance is beautifully transformed by the morning sun, sunset, and starry skies. If you visit at night, we recommend the Tonomine Highlands as an astronomical observation point.

Enjoy a stunning and deeply moving landscape in a place where you can experience the beauty of the four seasons.

These ancient springs are said to have been discovered around 1,150 years ago by Jikaku Daishi (also known as Ennin, a famous Japanese monk who lived in the late 8th and 9th centuries), and in recent years they have gained attention as the setting for the movie “The Diary of Yumechiyo.” The 98-degree hot waters that flow here are known as “Arayu,” and the area is famous for the “Arayu eggs” that you can boil yourself in the hot spring source.

Popular among waterfall lovers, this cascade in Hyogo Prefecture is famous among those in the know. The waterfall is located inside a cave, pouring down a drop of around 10 meters. The sun shines in from a gap in the rock overhead as the sound of the water echoes around the dome-shaped cave, forming a fantastical world.

Mount Hyonosen and Mount Hachibuse have been designated as Hyonosen-Ushiroyama-Nagisan Quasi-national Park.

Sakasa Hyonosen, the reflection of the mountain on the water-filled rice paddies photographed from the Bekku rice terraces in early May, before the rice planting, is a popular spectacle, and is visited each year by large numbers of photographers.

Selected as one of Japan’s 100 best waterfalls, the Saruo Falls are so named because of their resemblance to a monkey’s tail (“saru o”). The water falls in two steps: the upper fall is a “masculine” wild cascade with a perpendicular drop, while the lower is an elegant “feminine” fall. The upper fall boasts a drop of 39 meters, while the lower fall drops 21 meters, giving these falls a total height of 60 meters.