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| Our view from Day 4, the 3,600 peaks of Kumano |
After our busy day in Kyoto, we were ready to transition from tourists to pilgrims. After a quick cab ride to the station, we hopped on a local train for the 2.5-hour journey from Kyoto to Kii-Tanabe. The 'in case of a tsunami' safety card on board gave us a good laugh. Apparently, if you want to skip the evacuation ladder, you can just sit on the edge and hop right off—assuming, of course, that you're a panda!
We then boarded a bus for the short ride to Takijiri. It was obvous by the couples with backpacks who was headed in the same direction. In fact, on the bus we chatted with a couple from Australia, Kris and Andy. They had never taken on anything like this, and were excited to get going.
Day 1 Takijiri to Takahara
After dropping off our luggage at the Kumano Kodo visitor center, we walked across the street to the start of the trail, getting our first stamp. The trail was fairly steep almost right away, with tons of tree roots. We went up and up and up. It was pretty brutal. It wasn't really that hot, but with the humidity I sweated more than I ever have in my life. We stopped once or twice to drink water, grab a snack, but it was probably not enough. At one point I thought we had reached the peak, and mentally made the mistake of thinking it was going to be level or down from then on. Oh no, not even close. More up and down in the middle of a fairly dense forest.
Finally we descended into the tiny town of Takahara, our first overnight on the trail. We were staying at Hatago Masara, a simple, recently renovated B&B, with just three guest rooms. We both showered, donned our traditional yukata (Japanese robe supplied by the host, and ok to wear to dinner) and had a beer on the deck overlooking the beautiful Hatenashi mountain range.
For dinner, we were treated to a western style meal including a salad, small serving of lasagne, a small serving of roast beef and vegetable, and a dessert. Kind of underwhelming, but tasty. Our bed was a traditional Shikifuton, which is a firm cotton mattress placed directly on the floor or over tatami mats for 'spinal support'. Not our favorite.
Our guidebook said this would be 2.8 miles and take 2 hours. In reality, it really took about 3 hours, and Alltrails indicated 2.1miles but Tim started the recording late. After a long day we were ready for rest. My count was 29,868 grueling steps.
Day 2 Takahara to Chikatsuyu
We knew today was going to be longer, and we were much better prepared mentally for the climbs. We made sure we had enough water and fuel for the day. Our tour included box lunches for each day, sometimes yummy sometimes not, but always interesting.
The day honestly didn't feel as long as the first, partly because we saw more people along the way and there were some interesting points with information displays where we got our stamps. In Takahara we found the local Oku Japan office, where they shared some bus schedule updates and provided us with a few trinkets. Making our way to our second hotel of the trek, we found a Beer Garden and oh boy did that beer taste good! About 15 minutes later, our Australian friends found their way there as well. It's always fun to meet up with walkers that have similar interests - everyone on this walk has some foundational similarities - that you're just slightly crazy enough to do something like this.
I was looking forward to getting to our hotel for the night, Minshuku Chikatsuyu. This hotel had an on-site onsen, a traditional Japanese natural hot spring. The facilities were separated by men and women, so Tim and I put on our suits and relaxed in our separate hot spring facilities. We then found out why the baths were separated - traditionally an onsen is enjoyed naked. Yep. And nope, we did not.
After showering and putting on our yukata, we were treated to a traditional Japanese meal, complete with sushimi, tempura shrimp, ect. It was soooo good, and so many different flavors. Our room was in the newer section of the hotel, where to our delight the beds were 'western' style, complete with a private bath. You never know how great a bed is until you have to sleep on the floor.
Today's hike was 6.55 miles, and estimated to be 4 hours, but with the multiple breaks, it was closer to 5.5 hours. My step count was 30,457. We both slept good in the fancy bed that night.
Day 3 Chikatsuyu to Hongu
There were three options for the trail to the first of the three Grand Shrines, the Kumano Hongu Taisya. The strenuous option was 15 miles and estimated at 9 hours. For the moderate option, you can take a bus to the starting point, making it just about 9 miles and 7 hours. For the short option, you continue on the bus, shortening the walk to just 4 miles, estimated at 2 hours. Regardless of distance walked, this portion of the walk would qualify us for the Dual Pilgrimage. We opted for the medium option.
We headed out to the bus stop, a short walk from the hotel, arriving about 20 minutes before the bus. We were the second and third ones in line, a line that quickly grew quite long and somewhat disorganized. The bus company actually has a staff member there (and at a few other stops) to help manage the lines and basically shove as many people as possible onto the bus.
After being dropped off along with about 30 other hikers, we started up a shaded roadway for just about a mile before the trail cut into a valley and a steep, root-bound hike up, and up, and up. The trail then broke out into the open, where you could see the valley and surrounding areas. So beautiful. Then it went down, fairly sharply. And down, and down, muddy with roots, and several different types of nets to prevent erosion that became very helpful to balance and act as a sort of railing. It was hard but we were doing ok.
I quickly learned that my shirt only looked like a sporty, quick-dry top. Two hours in, it was completely useless. Both the shirt and my cotton shorts were completely drenched and stuck to me. Our Austrailian friends, who decided to the longer walk caught up with us, and Andy was also completely drenched in sweat, and was on his third shirt of the day. After a selfie, they were stopping for a snack break as we continued on.
Just past the halfway point of our day, we hit a trail junction with a restroom to the right. Assuming that was our path, we confidently marched ahead - completely ignoring the incredibly detailed, step-by-step guidebook with photo references sitting in my pack.
According to the map, we were supposed to pass a shrine shortly after the restroom. When it failed to appear, I assumed the map was outdated. Then we missed a second shrine. Shortly after, Tim's AllTrails app flashed a warning that we were off course, but we ignored it, reasoning that the digital route he selected wasn't an exact match for our specific trail anyway.
The warning signs kept piling up. A kilometer marker suddenly reset to 1, breaking the sequence of the previous markers, which had been trending in the 50s. Still, we brushed it off, assuming it was just a different branch of the same system. After crossing the sketchiest little bridge of the entire trek, complete with frayed rope "railings," reality finally sank in. I had sudden an epiphany: we were on the wrong trail. By that point, we had spent 40 minutes grinding uphill in the wrong direction. If we didn't turn back immediately, we would miss the Grand Shrine in Hongu. Adrenaline kicked in, and we flew back down the mountain, retracing our steps to the junction in about 25 minutes.
We had lost an hour to our own stubbornness. But instead of letting it ruin the day, we paused, refueled, shared a protein bar, and kept pushing forward.
We finally found our way to the iconic torii gate of the Grand Shrine, waiting for a few Instagrammers to stage the perfect shot. We meandered around trying to find the stamp and hardly even got to see this shrine. I have three photos belows from Trip Advisor, showing the shrine, and then looking down and then up the 158 steps down to the main street where the tourism office was. By then, it was shortly after 4:15 PM. The clock was ticking, as the tourism office - where we needed to register for the dual pilgrimage certificate - closed at 5:00 PM.
Ironically, right after we tracked down the Grand Shrine's stamp, that very same young couple from the gate approached us. It turned out they were hunting for the office, too. What followed was a comical game of follow-the-leader: we followed them, then they followed us, zig-zagging until we finally made it. We celebrated with a quick group selfie, and just like that, we're besties. Kinda. We successfully registered and received our official Dual Pilgrimage Certificates, and even posed for a photo to be featured on their website.
With the certificates safely tucked in a tube, we exiting the building just in time to see a bus boarding just across the parking lot. We realized it was our bus - and the last one running for nearly an hour.
After a 20-minute ride toward Yunomine Onsen, I forgot to hit the stop-request button, and we sailed right past our drop-off. Luckily, it turned out to be a turnaround loop, and the driver circled back a few minutes later to at our stop for the night. After another climb up the steep road, we arrived at Yunomiso, where we were warmly welcomed before we even stepped foot inside the hotel - we have never received hospitality quite like that!
We hauled our bags up to our room (no elevators!), showered, and changed into our comfortable yukata. Refreshed, we partook in another traditional Japanese multi-course meal (seriously, where do they even keep all of these tiny dishes?). The culinary highlight was a whole fish presented speared through the head - or maybe it was the horse sashimi.
We enjoyed the most gorgeous sunset from our balcony and retired for the night to our traditional Japanese futon beds. My step count was 37,689. Discussions of taking things a little easier on Day 4 had already begun.
Here's a video Tim made of some of the food we ate. Day 3 was supposed to be 9 miles, however with our detour, we ended up at 12.79. My steps were at 37,689.
Day 4 Ukegawa to Koguchi
I opted for an early morning soak before breakfast in the hotel's private onsen. While it wasn't quite the same as our hot tub at home, the mineral water worked wonders on my aching knees.
Breakfast was another traditional Japanese feast - and yes, featuring so many of those tiny dishes. Afterward, we caught a bus to Yunomine Onsen (the first pics below are from the town, where the hot springs flow through the small village) that connected to another bus, packed tight with 75 of our closest friends.
The bus dropped us off at Ukegawa to start our day. After some iced coffee and a deep stretch, we kicked off Day 4 with an immediate uphill climb. Because why wouldn't we start with an incline? Up and up and up we went.
Thankfully, it turned out to be a fairly decent day on the trail. The weather was cooler, and there were definitely more places to stop and catch our breath. We were rewarded with a beautiful scenic overlook along of the '3600 Peaks of the Kumano, a poetic metaphor and traditional exaggeration representing a seemingly infinite sea of mountains rather than an exact count. Best of all was the camaraderie out there - everyone on the trail is experiencing the exact same physical challenge and the same incredible cultural immersion.
During our lunch break we met a woman from the UK seemingly more fascinated in mushrooms than Tim, a group of younger Tawaineese students, and a couple from Madrid who are hiking the Camino Santiago a few days at a time, because they can.
After a tough day of hiking, the final two miles hit us hard with a fairly steep downhill grade over massive stone steps - "medieval torture steps," as I called them. Because of the punishing vertical drop, our pace slowed to a crawl, averaging probably just one mile per hour as we navigated the descent. At least it felt like it. During this descent we had been discussing about not walking our last day. We already had the Dual Pilgrimage, so it wasn't required. And it was still a long day of hiking.
When we emerged from the wooded area and found ourselves at Koguchi Shizennole, a former schoolhouse renovated by the town to host pilgrims, with a campground, and a food truck that also served as the bar. We found a great spot under a tent in the shade and enjoyed a couple of cocktails. IT WAS AMAZING.
Dinner was announced on the loudspeaker, because of course, you're in a former schoolhouse. This was another facility with no private baths and only one private toilet - the handicap toilet. Oh well, one more time. We could have seriously done without the 6:15 AM loudspeaker breakfast announcement - it gave off pure, dystopian 1984 vibes.
So why do we do this - these pilgrimages? Do we enjoy medieval torture steps? Of course not. These adventures are a facinating and immersive way to experience another culture. We are thankful for the experiences and opportunities these walks have brought us.
Our Day 4 was 8.49 miles, and was estimated at 4 hours. It was closer to like 6. My steps were at 15,467.
Day 5 - A Day of Shrines
We knew we had to rest. Day 5 was going to be the toughest section, even tougher than the first four days. We decided to take off our pilgrim hats, put on our tourist hats, maintain any connective tissue still remaining in our knees, and then take a bus to the Shingu area. After a tip from one of the other pilgrims on the bus, we got off where it was closest to the Kamikura-jinja Shrine overlooking the town of Shingu. This is not one of the Grand Shrines but still amazing and definitly didn't want to miss it. This shrine was gifted by Minamoto-no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura period. More medieval steps, without a handrail. I made up the first section but was freaking out about going down. Tim continued while I rested.
Here's a video from Tim's hike to the top.
Just a short 15 minute walk through the town of Shingu, we entered the Hayatama Taisha Shrine which is one of the Kumano Sanzan shrines. It has stood on the riverbank since at least the 12th century. Hayatama houses ancient religious artifacts dating back to the 3rd century, showcasing its enduring significance in Japanese folklore.After enjoying the second of the three Grand Shrines, we walked to the bus stop, rested and grabbed a bite to eat, a bento box included with our meals. Man, they eat a lot of rice. We then boarded a bus to Nachi katsuura - a hub filled with natural wonders, ancient shrines, and historic architecture. We could tell it was a popular place by the lineup of cars waiting to park.
First up, Nachi Waterfall, a natural wonder with a height of 133 meters, considered the tallest individual waterfall in Japan. The falls symbolize both the Kumano Forest in which water flows abundantly, and the Kumano pilgrimage which is so deeply rooted to nature. Notice that for all of these shrines, temples, and even for this waterfall, you enter the space through a torii gate, which marks the boundary between the everyday human world and a sacred space,
After climbing the Daimon-zaka Slope, we encountered the famous vivid red three-story pagoda, Seiganto-ji Temple. Amazing. And once again, we lucked out with the weather - clear blue skies!
Just up the hill from the pagoda we first encountered the Nyohōdō. Rebuilt by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1587, this building is commonly referred to as the "Hall of Lanterns". It is specifically dedicated to Daikokuten, one of Japan's Seven Lucky Gods.
Tomorrow we take the train around the Kii Peninsula, back to Osaka.
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