Pinaisara Falls

Pinaisara pours off a cliff more than 200 m wide on the north side of Tedo-yama and splits into two thin white streams, which is where the name comes from: pinai means beard and saara something hanging down, so the falls look like a white beard. The Taketomi Town tourism association adds that it is a sacred place, home in legend to a water god with a white beard. You can see it from the road across Funaura Bay, a white thread on the green hillside.

Getting to the foot of the falls means crossing the bay and the mangroves behind it. Most tours paddle canoes up the Hinai River around high tide and then walk about 15 minutes through the forest to the pool, and a harder route climbs round the cliff to the top for the view down to the sea. The trekking routes are easy to lose and can flood after heavy rain.

The Hinai River has been one of Iriomote's five restricted fields under the Ecotourism Promotion Act since 1 March 2025. Applications open six months before the date, entry needs a registered guide, and the field takes 200 people a day; once that cap fills, tours that day are cancelled.