Only an hour away from Kadogawa, Takachiho is home to many incredible shrines and cultural activities, but my favorite part by far was boating through the gorge, near waterfalls and volcanic rock formations galore!
Here are some of my favorite pictures of our day:
たかちほ Gorge! Notice the incredible waterfall, which apparently is among the 100 most beautiful waterfalls in Japan!
Here was a tiny spring towash your hands and (according to a lovely ice cream shop keeper) apparently get a cool drink of water! I'm still not sure if he was just messing with me or if I misinterpreted, but I drank the water anyway! I haven't died yet so I guess all's well that ends well!
There was a tiny little tourist area with restaurants, snack booths and a freshwater aquarium near the gorge. Shuttles took the tourists from the boats to their cars (though we just walked because we're young and strong). ちからもち！！！
A shot of our day trip gang! We're the cutest!
While we waited for our boat, we ate at this amazing restaurant! The chef would send Somen noodles down these chutes, and we would catch them with chopsticks and dip them into a delectable sauce! It was a really difficult way to eat, but what a fun experience!
おいしい！！！ Delicious!
Then, it was time for the boats! We managed to paddle all the way through the gorge and I took tons of pictures with my new Polaroid camera. It was heaps of fun, even if all the boaters seemed to run into each other at every turn!
Afterwards, we visited the Ama-no-iwato shrine and Celestial Rock cave, where the Japanese goddess, Amaterasu, was said to have hid for days and days until another god did an obscene dance outside and made Amaterasu curious. Obscene dances make me pretty curious too, so I feel like I really get her.
Everyone leaves little rock towers in this cave. It's beautiful and strangely haunting.
Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at an amazing noodle shop called Marason-tei (マラソンー亭) and saw a traditional Japanese dance that is performed at Takachiho shrine every night from 8pm-9. I really enjoyed seeing it since we had spent the day learning different myths and legends about the gods and goddesses of Japan, and then got to see those myths reenacted on stage!
Takachiho is totally worth a visit, and I had been wanting to come here since I had first googled Miyazaki. The gorge is even more beautiful in real life than on the internet, so if you get a chance, make sure to come on over!
Thank you so much to Takachiho ALT Ellen for the lovely recommendations on things to do in town! It was an amazing day and I couldn't have been happier!
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