The village of Kiyomi is just west of Takayama. I teach at the elementary and junior high there. It's about a 15 minute drive whether it's by highway, or by country roads. Kiyomi is a very narrow village. The Seseragi Road travels the entire length of the village from it's most southern point to the center of the town in the northwest. Another road goes directly east from there covering the rest of the village. It's about an hours drive to cover all of Seseragi, but it shows just how stunning beautiful the nature of the Japanese mountains can be.
I recently did a report about Kiyomi. There's about 3000 residents. The main industry of Kiyomi is farming, of which most are dairy farmers. Turns out there are actually more cows in Kiyomi than people. There's more than 5000 registered cows.
98% of Kiyomi is heavily wooded and mountainous terrain. As their website states, Kiyomi is mostly wilderness, and everything else is inhabited by close and loving families of farmers. Any random person you talk with in Kiyomi will mention how great Kiyomi is for being with family.
But, in that 98% wilderness, there are some beautiful hiking trails, camp grounds, and waterfalls, too. In November, it still hadn't snowed yet. It was still too warm. On this rainy day, I went to visit one of the more popular and easily accessible waterfalls of Kiyomi, the Okura waterfall.
It's about an hours hike from Seseragi up the mountain to where the Okura waterfall has its largest cliff. Throughout the hike, you follow the stream of water it produces.
