They call it the phantom great falls — maboroshi no ōtaki — because so few people ever stand before it. Hayato Great Falls drops 50 meters in two plunges, an upper fall of 40 meters and a lower of 10, on the Ōtakizawa stream at the headwaters of the Hayato River, deep in the Tanzawa Mountains of Kanagawa Prefecture. A great rock protrudes from the middle of the upper fall and blocks the view, so the whole cascade reveals itself clearly only from the bottom. Despite carrying a well-known name from Japan's Top 100 Waterfalls list, it remains one of the selection's least-visited entries: the journey in is simply that demanding.
Visiting Hayato Great Falls
Reaching the falls requires a roughly two-hour hike from the nearest road on poorly marked, minimally maintained mountain trails inside Tanzawa-Ōyama Quasi-National Park, in the Midori Ward of Sagamihara. The route includes beam crossings and a rickety wooden bridge, and leeches and gnats are common in season — hiking boots and long pants are strongly advised, targeting the lower legs against leeches. The falls are inaccessible in bad weather.
