The Land of Natural Wonders Hida-Osaka Waterfalls and Hot Springs

Hida-Osaka Falls Tour

For the Hida-Osaka Falls Tour, 13 courses, with which you can see a total of 58 waterfalls, were organized by local NPO with the wish to ‘introduce waterfalls that Hida-Osaka is proud of’. (partly under maintenance)
Beginner and advanced hikers can enjoy tours safely with guides.

For example, with the most popular ‘Mitsudaki Course’, you can see a powerful three-layered waterfall which is five minutes away from the parking., without a guide. Also, the ‘Karatani Course’, which a beginner can enjoy without a guide, is a hiking course with many highlights such as three waterfalls including ‘Akaganetoyo’ with the mysterious emerald green basin, forests of lava plateau and a wetland where you will see different living things depending on the season.

With courses for intermediate and advanced hikers, which will need guides, you will be led by guides to beautiful unexplored areas which have transparent mountain streams and complicate rock areas that will surprise you.

The hiking season is spring through fall, but many programs to feel the sense of unity with nature are offered in Hida-Osaka through the year. For example, Shower Climbing(Canyoning), where you would play at waterfalls as natural water slides is a popular program among children and adults that is offered only in summer.

Then, the Frozen Waterfall Tour is offered only in winter. Frozen waterfalls covered by snow are just like mysterious sculptures created by nature. If you are lucky, you may be able to go to the back of the waterfalls that you cannot see normally.

Onsen Tour

Tours in Hida-Osaka Onsen Area and Gero Onsen will introduce you the unique hot spring culture.
Hida-Osaka has three hot springs -Yuya Onsen and Shitajima Onsen with a carbonated spring which is rare in Japan, and Nigorigo Onsen on a spot of 1800 meter high-altitude, one of a few spots in Japan.

Yuya Onsen has 400 years of history.What attracted people is its spring quality. The highly carbonated spring moisturizes your skin just by soaking in, and drinking it will be effective for constipation or digestive symptoms. Shitajima Onsen is a hot spring with a rustic atmosphere, in the heart of a mountain with abundant nature. It will be worth to try drinking-spots of both Yuya Onsen and Shitajima Onsen, which are within 3 kilometers.

Nigorigo Onsen, deep in the mountains that is about one hour away by car from Yuya Onsen, is located at the trailhead of Mt. Ontake, and has been a beloved Onsen spot for more than 100 years with scattered Onsen hotels and public hot springs. It is distinguishable with its brown-shaded water with iron, and known as a secluded hot spring where you can view nature and relax in the silence of virgin forest.
At Gero Onsen, which is about 30 minutes by train from the town of Hida-Osaka, you will experience the emotional Onsen town atmosphere, and Japan’s unique hospitality that respects traditions and formality.
Gero Onsen is one of the ‘Japan’s top three hot springs’ with its smooth spring quality, and an important destination chosen as one of the World’s Top 100 Sustainable Tourism Destinations stories by Green Destination, an international certification organization, as the core of eco-tourism that connects surrounding regions and where you can experience Japan’s deep nature, culture and history including the ‘Hida-Osaka Falls Tour’.

You can also enjoy a footbath tour along with Hida-Osaka Onsen Tour.

Model Course

Access

From Nagoya to Hida-Osaka, you can take the Hida Limited Express of JR Takayama main line, then go to JR Hida-Osaka station through JR Gero station. It takes about two hours.
You will transit Nagoya when you are visiting from Tokyo or Osaka as well. It takes about 35 minutes by JR Takayama main line from downtown of Takayama, Gifu to Hida-Osaka.

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