Tucked away in the forested hills of Kumamoto, Japan, there's a waterfall that doesn’t just flow—it invites you in. Nabegataki Waterfall may not be the tallest or the loudest in Japan, but it offers something far rarer: the chance to walk behind the cascading water and stand inside the waterfall itself. And if you come early in the morning, when fog still clings to the trees, the scene takes on an almost mythical quality—as if you’ve stepped through a veil into another world.

Imagine standing at the edge of a vast, shifting sea of sand. The air is thick with salt, the wind tugs at your jacket, and then—rising like a mirage out of the misty tideflats—you see it: a medieval island crowned with a dramatic abbey that seems almost too magical to be real.