Travel Tuesdays #17: Winter Wonderland At 七滝 Nanataki Waterfall & Shrine in Kosaka, Japan

Travel Tuesdays #17

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Nanataki 七滝 7 Waterfalls and a Fantastic Shrine.

We went for a drive in Kazuno city today, but everywhere we went there were almost blizzard like conditions. Much of Kazuno city is in a large valley in the middle of the mountains so the snow really dumps here. Toss in winds like today and occasionally we had white out conditions.

Towards the end of the day though the skies cleared up a bit and just as we were turning to head home we passed a sign that said "Nanataki 5km". I mentioned it to my wife and she said, "Yes, let's go there!". It wasn't part of our plan for the day, but it turned out to be an amazing adventure!

Nanataki 七滝 means 7 waterfalls. It's located about 5 kilometers from a famous old mining town called Kosaka in Akita prefecture. Kosaka is next to my wife's hometown of Kazuno which is about 7.5 hrs by car North of Tokyo. The area is known for it rice, apples, mining industry and soon to be bitcoin mining farms, we'll get to that later this week. You can check the location on Steemit World Map.

Upon arriving there is a large visitor's center where you park at. It was actually open, however no one was there and none of the restaurants nearby were open.

After parking you have to walk across the highway towards the falls. It's only about 20' to the path so you don't have to walk far. Once across the highway you can clearly see the falls, along with various structures welcoming you along the way. The first being a torii and behind it a bridge reminiscent of something from Kyoto, beautiful in both design and placement. Torii are gates transitioning from the profane to the sacred in the Shinto religion.

Once you cross the bridge you have two paths to choose from, one leads to the falls, one leads to a shrine that houses the god of the river. Let's head to the waterfalls first.

The water was pretty loud crashing down the 7 levels of black rock. It was flowing fairly strong even in January during a snow storm. I wondered what it would look like in spring when the snow really starts melting.

After taking in the majesty of the falls it was time to head up the second path to the shrine. Again a torii greats you and leads you to a flight of stairs.

At the top of the stairs is the cleansing pool, but this one had an amazing dragon sculpture in it. It was literally mind blowing as the water dripped off the dragon into the pool and the ripples spread across it. I stood there for a few minutes admiring it and the affect it had on it's surroundings.

After cleaning I headed up to the shrine to ask the river god to answer my prayer.

To say a prayer you first must make an offering of a tangible coin, gods don't accept crypto yet. The coin is tossed into a box, then you ring the bell on the giant rope for the god to hear your prayer. Next bow twice, clap your hands twice and pray. After your prayer is finished you bow again and leave. When leaving you walk down the sides of the stairs as the center is for the god to use.

A personal story, my father-in-law told us tonight that his grandfather went to this shrine to seek guidance on where to dig his water well for their home/kimono shop. After returning to town a few nights later he had a dream the god told him where to dig, he did and that's how my wife's family made their well.

There are hundreds of amazing places to visit in and around Kazuno city. I'll continue to bring you to some of those places in the future so check back every Tuesday in 2018.

Thank you for reading!

[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 40.355832 lat 140.783358 long Travel Tuesdays #17: Winter Wonderland At 七滝 NanaTaki Waterfall & Shrine in Kosaka, Japan d3scr)

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