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Chichibu-Tama-Kai NP, Tokyo
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Look at the stripes on the waterfall’s cliff: they’re layers of sandstone and mudstone that were baked into hornfels by nearby quartz diorite. It’s a striking glimpse of heat transforming rock.
Water from Mt. Mitō plunges here, then travels down the Akikawa and Tama rivers all the way to Tokyo Bay. This mountain waterfall is part of a watershed that ends at the capital’s shoreline.
In the coldest months, usually January and February, this roughly 35 m cascade can freeze into an icefall. Instead of a ribbon of running water, the cliff becomes a dramatic sculpture of ice.
Hinohara’s specialty maitake mushrooms are grown at about 850 m, and the forest restaurant near the falls serves dishes featuring them. It’s a taste of the village’s mountain harvest close to the trail.
At 35 m, Mito Great Falls is Hinohara’s tallest waterfall. Tokyo designated it a Place of Scenic Beauty for the way its single stream drops down Mt. Mitō in harmony with the surrounding beech forest.
The route to the falls became Tokyo’s first certified forest-therapy road in 2007. Its gentle 1 km path is covered with woodchips; after fresh hinoki chips are spread, their scent drifts along the trail.
The forest around the falls is part of a rare Tokyo beech wood: substantial natural stands remain only on Mt. Mitō and in the Nippara River basin. Mt. Mitō’s forest floor also has unusually little bamboo grass.
The waterfall takes its name from Mt. Mitō, whose name is linked to its 3 summits: the west, central and east peaks. The mountain’s “three heads” are there in the skyline above the falls.
