“Let’s go to Shiraito Waterfall (Itoshima-shi) while it’s still hot!” said one friend of mine.
“We are going by bicycle, including climbing up the mountain, ^^” answered my friend, when I asked him about how are we going there.
Although knowing that we will probably regret this decision, we agreed to go by bicycle because we don’t feel like paying for transportation fee. Also, it sounded more fun!

Our journey started from Hatae Station at 09:30.
Luckily, it was cloudy, so it wasn’t difficult cycling to the foot of the mountain. We actually had a fun time because we were playing games such as Shiritori as we cycled.

But everything turned into suffering and disappointment once we started climbing up the mountain. We tried to direct our attention to a guessing game instead of thinking about the pain we feel in our legs.
We are constantly saying, “It’s going to be really fun when we are going down the mountain later,” as a way to encourage each other to keep us going.

After approximately 30 minutes of periodically switching between riding and pushing our bicycles, we finally made it to the parking lot! (too bad it isn’t the waterfall yet 〒▽〒)

After stopping our bicycles, we followed a 900m hiking course to get to our destination.

Walking along the hiking path was a pleasant experience as It was so cool and it didn’t feel like it’s summer at all.

After 10 minutes of walking, we finally reached Shiraito Waterfall! Just when we were about to celebrate it, we were a little disappointed at the crowd. We chose to come on Friday, thinking that there will be fewer people here because it is a weekday. Yet, seems like that day was some kind of holiday, judging from the fact that most visitors are families and children.

Ignoring the crowded situation at Shiraito Waterfall, I suggested that we try the Nagashi-Somen, the one activity that I’ve been looking forward to. It is possible to try fishing too but we decided not to do it because we think that it is expensive.

After finishing our Nagashi-Somen, we satisfy our craving for a cooling “dessert” by getting ourselves a bottle of Ramune each.

We spent the rest of the time talking about random stuff while enjoying the cooling experience exclusive to Shiraito Waterfall in this burning-hot summer.

The time to go back has come, and we couldn’t hide our excitement to dash down to the foot of the mountain. Although it was really fun and thrilling, it ended in a jiffy, which is kind of disappointing as we wanted more. What relieved my disappointment was the other 2 groups of people we passed by on the way down. They were also on their bicycles, on their way to Shiraito Waterfall. At least, we are not the only weird ones here.

Now that I think about it, I wouldn’t be able to make it if I was alone during the whole process. I wouldn’t even consider going to Shiraito Waterfall by bicycle. Anyway, I am happy to be able to go through this experience. It’s one of the memories that I treasure and will be embedded in my mind forever.
But, the next time I am going to Shiraito Waterfall, it will be by bus or by car. ?