a great waterfall

I had a very nice day yesterday in Akiu. Went for a hot spring bath in a public onsen. There was no trouble in finding the cheap 300yen place- we just followed all the old women off the bus! It was a popular place it seemed- there was room for about 5 or 6 in the water at a squeeze, but mostly the old women sat around the side of the bath, occasionally dipping a bowl in the mineral-rich water and pouring it over themselves, or just dangled their legs in. The water was very hot (usually posh hotels water-down the natural spring water), so you can't last much more than 2 or 3 minutes fully immersed in the tub. This was the first place I'd been to where there weren't any showers- only taps and a bowl to wash yourself with first. (You have to take a shower / wash yourself completely before entering the communal bath tub as it were.) And there wasn't any shampoo provided, but luckily my friend was more prepared than I so i could wash my hair.

Anyway, the exciting part of the day came after the onsen. We got back on the bus & went to Akiu Great Falls. There was a nice big waterfall, which we first saw from a viewing tower & then trekked down a bit and went to the bottom. It was really good. And hardly any people were there (just my friend & I) because technically you weren't meant to go down there until 1st March. - Japanese reasoning being that in Dec-Feb it's winter and there's a lot of snowfall. But this year being an exception, we encountered no trouble in going down.
It was fun & the water was clear and blue-green in places.

It felt like we were miles out of the city, in the countryside, but really the bus ride to the onsen was 45 mins & returning, took an hour and a half from the waterfall. It reminded me a bit of Nikko, where I went in January last year. - Mountains, shrines around & a waterfall (although the one I saw last year was frozen!)