Inunakisan

What?
Inunakisan or Mount Inunaki (犬鳴山) is a mountain dotted with waterfalls. Monks and trainees of Shingon Buddhism established the Shipporyuji Temple in this area and use one of the biggest waterfalls for their ascetic training. Apart from the shrine and waterfalls the mountain is also rich in hiking trails.
Where?
Close to Kansai Airport, the ideal hub to explore Inunakisan is Osaka. Make your way to either JR Hineno Station (日根野駅) or the Nankai Izumisano Station (泉佐野駅). From either station you need to transfer to a Nankai Wing Bus with end stop Inunakisan. For JR Rail Pass owners the Hineno Station is obviously the good choice, but for those who need to buy tickets anyway, Nankai railways offer a special Inunaki hiking tickets which includes both train and bus ticket.
URL
Osaka Info Izumisano Tourism

Inunakisan is most famous for the pictures where you see monks or trainees standing underneath a waterfall. Word goes that if you’re lucky you can still see this spectacle, but I’m under the impression that it is probably only practiced on special events or occasions. The homepage does invite people to train for a certain sum of money, so I could be wrong though.
In each case is the ascent towards the Pilgrim’s Waterfall (行者の滝) a very nice one. While the waterfalls are not found in wild nature like for example Yatsubuchi-no-Taki, they have been kept enough off the radar of mass tourism. Together with the sacred grounds of the temples this makes that the area has still kept some of its ethereal spirit.

After admiring the waterfall we chose to continue hiking, up a small but steep path next to the entrance of the main hall of the temple. Arriving at a paved road, we followed this through the tunnel up until we reached a barrier. Maybe a hundred meters behind the barrier and just after a sharp turn in the road we entered the woods on a steep path on the left. From here on it was just stairs after stairs after stairs up until the top. While not particularly long, with an elevation of around 500 meters in around 4 km the hike was quite strenuous. I kind of like these steep staircases in wooded areas, and the view on top at Gohonmatsu (五本松) at 748 meters was very beautiful in the clear weather. We also climbed the viewing tower (which was 200yen to enter) where we had an unobstructed view upon Kansai Airport. Unfortunately it was clearly a towered built in the bubble, so it was concrete, quite smelly and without the possibility to step outside and take picture without glass in front of the camera.

Diety at the Sipporyuji Temple.

The entrance hall for the Pilgrim's Waterfall.

One of the many tiny waterfalls.

Entrance to the sanctuary.

We just returned the way we came, but you can take several paths which reach out to for example Mount Izumi Katsuragi (泉葛城さん) or Mount Takashiro (高城山).
Upon returning to the bus stop I really fancied a soak in the nearby Inunaki Onsen, however time restraints made us skip this part. I’m pretty sure though most people welcome a nice hot bath after such a steep climb.