Nunobiki Falls

Behind Shin-Kobe Station, where the Shinkansen stops, a deep gorge begins. Nunobiki Falls is the name for four waterfalls in the Nunobiki stream of the Rokko range: Odaki (the male fall), Meotodaki, Tsutsumigadaki and Medaki (the female fall). The sound of falling water is only a few minutes' walk from the station.

Odaki, the largest, drops 43 m into a pool 6.6 m deep, with five potholes beside it. Medaki drops 19 m in two stages, Meotodaki 9 m and Tsutsumigadaki 8 m. Together with Kegon Falls and Nachi Falls, Nunobiki is counted as one of Japan's three great sacred falls, and it is among Japan's 100 Waterfalls. The falls appear in the Tales of Ise and in poems by Ariwara no Narihira and Fujiwara no Teika.

From Sunago Bridge, the path leads to Medaki in about 100 m and Odaki up the stairs in about 270 m. A round trip from the station takes about 30 minutes. Upstream is the Nunobiki Dam (Gohonmatsu Weir), finished in 1900, Japan's first gravity-type concrete dam and an Important Cultural Property.