The next thing Eliza and I did was to make a Winter visit to the Yamabiko waterfalls, a short drive outside of Maruseppu. I'd been to the falls two summers ago soon after arriving in Japan. As impressive as the small, quaint waterfall was then, it was even more impressive as a frozen column of ice! The road leading up the falls is closed in the Winter so we had to park and walk a short twenty minutes to the entrance path. I'd never actually seen a frozen waterfall up close before, but it was like a huge icicle the size of a redwood tree! The shrine behind the waterfall was still there, nestled deep against the bedrock, along with signs of the other curious visitors before us. The picturesque scenery along with the sounds of the forest, muffled by the quiet blanket of snow, made it the perfect place to relax and spend time alone in nature ;)