Kiso Valley Help

Hi, this is my current itinerary for 1 of our 2 days in the Kiso Valley. I’m having trouble incorporating Ushigataki Falls/Kiso Gorge and have a few questions listed at the bottom if anyone is able to help!

– 7:30am: Breakfast is served at ryokan

– 8:45am: Check out of Tajimaya. Go to tourist info center for maps and luggage transfer

– 9:15am: Begin Nakasendo Trail hike
(1.5hrs, 5.4 miles)

– 10:45am: Arrive in Tsumago and explore. Get lunch here. Take bus to Nagiso

– 2:00pm: Arrive in Nagiso and explore

– 4:15pm: Yui-an owners pick us up at Nagiso station

– 4:30pm: Arrive at Yui-an Hostel (just outside of town), eat dinner and relax

Each post town we’re spending time in (Magome, Tsumago, and Nagiso) has time set aside just to ‘explore’. I have a list of fun museums, activities, etc. to try if we feel up to it and if time permits. I’m sure we’ll get a kick out of just walking around and looking at whatever catches the eye.

However, I came across an awesome looking hike in the Nagiso area which includes Ushigataki Falls! This one tickles my fantasy in particular because of how untraveled by foreign tourists it is, it looks very quiet and serene. Also, a lot of our ‘hikes’ are more like strolls just out side of a city (like Osaka), which this one is very much not.

My thought is:
At 2:00pm when we arrive at Nagiso Station, instead of exploring the town center, we continue on a 5 minute train to Junikane Station. I think this would be our starting point and from there we would hike past the Lover’s Suspension Bridge and to Ushigataki. Looks like about 5 miles, 2hrs?
We can also start this at 1:00pm instead of 2:00 and have an hour less in Tsumago if needed.

My questions..
1. What is this trail called? I’m only seeing “Yogawamachi”. When searching that name of the trail and the name of the gorge, very little is coming up and definitely not enough for me to feel confident about adding it to the itinerary. Same with the waterfall, too many English variations of the name to find much info.
I would love to know exact starting points, time, distance, incline/how challenging. A map of the trail would be fantastic.

2. After we get to the falls, what options do we have to get back? Do buses or taxis go out there? If so, are they hard to come by?

3. Assuming this trail doesn’t loop and we chose to hike back on the same trail, does anyone have an idea of how long/far or how challenging it would be to make our way back to Jūnikane Station?

4. The only end to this trail I’ve seen online is Junikane-Nojiri, which is not somewhere we have time for or want to include on this trip. If we did this we’d just use Nojiri as our ending point and pretty much immediately leave. Another estimate on time and distance for this would be extremely helpful. We would need to get back to Nagiso Station for our hostel owner to pick us up at 6:30pm at the very latest. I’m not sure if we’ll have time.

5. The last possibility we have is to do any of these versions of the hike, then ALSO hike to Yui-An Hostel and arrive sometime before 7. We can come after 7pm but we’ll miss dinner.

5. I saw a very vague review on Trip Advisor mentioning that they did this (^hiked to Yui-an) on the “Yogawamachi” trail that supposedly runs through the gorge that we want to hike… So, that just adds to my confusion. Is it the same trail? Yui-an seems considerably far away from Ushigataki on foot.

6. And lastly, is going through the trouble worth it? I’m sure it’s absolutely stunning but would we be missing out on attractions in Nagiso? Is there a equally highly rated hike closer to us? We really like this one and it’s okay if we’re pooped afterwards but I don’t want to spoil the day just to check this off my list.

Anywho, I’m losing my mind a bit trying to sort out these details for each leg of the trip. Takayama and the Magome/Nagiso areas are tough ones to do detailed research on being so rural.

For anyone who is familiar with this area, let me know what option you would pick in my shoes. Thanks in advance for any help!

2 comments
  1. For obscure hikes like this you really need to be comfortable with searching in Japanese and reading through a translator – yes the AI isn’t perfect but you only need the general idea, and once you do it enough you get used to some of the more cultural language (e.g. “I was healed” would show up often in people’s reviews of nature spots).
    Specifically, use Google Maps to find out the Japanese name of these falls, which is 牛ヶ滝, and use Google Translate to interpret the results. For example, [this website](https://shinshu.net/hike/kakizore) and [this website](https://nagiso.jp/feature/feature4/) both seem to have access instructions which is train to Nojiri/Junikane, walking along the road until you cross the river, and walking towards these falls.

    As for whether it’s worth it, entirely depends on your interests. For me, these falls are too small to be worth the trip considering the amount of time spent on walking next to a road, especially if I’m already doing Tsumago-Magome and have limited vacation time. For someone else they could really enjoy it.

  2. FYI I don’t remember seeing lockers at Nagiso station, so if you are just transferring your luggage from Magome to Tsumago you may have an issue, and should double check if they do have lockers and what size. If you can’t find info online the hostel owner should know

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