Pilgrims again

29 April – 6 May Kii Peninsula

Twelve months ago, almost to the day, we were setting off on the Portuguese coastal Camino de Santiago, and now we are heading down to the Kii peninsula in the far south of Honshu to participate in another pilgrimage route, the Kumano Kodo. The Kumano Kodo is a series of trails all forming part of the Kumano Shenzan pilgrimage which involves visiting the three holiest Kumano shrines of Kumano Hongu-Taisha, Kumano Nachi-Taisha and Kumano Hayatama-Taisha. We are tackling the most popular of the four major routes, the Nakasendo Way, which traverses the Kii mountain range from Tanabe in the west to Katsuura in the east and passes through 2 of the three grand shrines.

But before we tackle the walk we need to get there. We were patting ourselves on the back for successfully negotiating the ferry trip from Naoshima and a couple of local train rides to get to Okayama, but with a tight changeover to catch a Shinkansen at Okayama, we struck a hitch with our tickets. A complex required mix and sequence of base fare tickets, reserved seat tickets, and local train IC card tap off, which we had not encountered to date, had us stumped, and valuable seconds for our changeover were evaporating as we tried to sort things out with the station attendant. After finally validating our tickets we made a mad dash down the stairs for the Shinkansen and boarded with about 15 seconds to spare. By sheer luck, our reserved seats were on the carriage just at the bottom of the stairs. Phew, the adrenaline ensured that I felt no pain in my knee until I sat down. Thankfully the rest of the long journey down to Kii-Tanabe went smoothly.

We are doing our walk during golden week in Japan, which is the week where several national holidays come together in one week, and almost all of Japan takes the opportunity to hit the road. What that means for us is that accommodation is both hard to come by and also quite expensive. Despite booking several months ago, we had to some extent to take what we could get. Because I was largely responsible for this part of our itinerary, I was sweating a bit on what we might be dished up. Our first night at Kii-Tanabe was, as expected, a pretty standard hotel, nothing to write home about, but clean and comfortable, so I marked that one down as a moderate success.

Our first day of walking begins with a bus ride out to the official start point of the Nakahechi route at Takijiri-oji, from whence we will walk about 16 kilometres to Chikatsuyu and the delightfully named Happiness Chikatsuyu minshuku. From step one of the walk our trajectory was steep up, and it stayed that way for a very long time. I had only progressed a couple of hundred metres when I started to wonder whether my decision to walk despite a still dodgy knee was the right one. But just as that thought entered my head we happened upon a gentleman who had braces on both knees and was quite significantly impaired. As we passed he smiled and waved. He had clearly been dealt a much more difficult hand than me, and he was just getting on with it, and smiling into the bargain. I smiled and waved back and hobbled off with just a little more spring in my limp.

The walking was certainly difficult, but the scenery was quite beautiful as we made our way up into the mountains, so the kilometres slipped by quite quickly. Eventually our relentless climbing eased and we were rewarded with some splendid views across the mountain range at Daimon-Oji, the halfway point, where we decided to sit and eat the nice little bento box lunch prepared for us by last night’s accommodation provider. Very delicious I think, but my energy reserves were so depleted by the walking, that replenishment was a priority, so I may not have quite savoured the meal as I should have, it was devoured very quickly.

S&C walk a little slower than we do, but they caught up whilst we were lunching and joined us. They didn’t look too much the worse for wear, which was good. There was always a concern that this walk, which doesn’t pretend to be anything but difficult, might test S’s problematic back and knee, but they had broken the back of day one, which was very pleasing. Now, after just a little more climbing, came the new challenge of relentless downhill as we headed onward. As I have said before, downhill is more difficult for me, but add high steps and slippery surfaces to the equation and it becomes a bit tortuous, which all meant that our journey towards Happiness was significantly slowed. This time the scenery didn’t help me because my focus needed to be firmly on the ground ahead. Eventually though, we attained Happiness and were welcomed by a nice man who handed over dinner and showed us our rooms, which were very pleasant. Sleep came easily to me that night.

Breakfast the next morning was in a small café in the tiny village of Chikatsuyu down the hill and over the river from our accommodation. The little old lady (probably younger than us) who run the café was very nice, but the breakfast supplied, despite being based on white, fluffy bread, didn’t really do the trick in terms of fuelling up for a big walk. We did not fancy the chances of the bento box provided surviving until lunch.

Today’s walk was officially 25 kilometres, but we all agreed to catch a bus for the first little bit and reduce that distance to about 18 km, and S, who had pulled up a little sore from yesterday’s exertions, decided to reduce the kilometre count even further by staying on the bus all the way to our next accommodation. All of our planning material and the bus information provided by Happiness Chikatsuyu suggested that the bus we required was leaving at about 9:00, but google kept insisting that the real time was more like 10:00. We got to the bus stop in time for the 9:00 which of course never came. The timetables, it transpires, had been updated on the first of May (today) and the 9:00 departure was no more. Google was all over it, we were not. So we sat for an hour and watched the rice grow in the field over the road.

Thankfully today’s walking is much easier going than yesterday. Still plenty of uphills and downs, but just a little more moderate, and again the scenery was beautiful. Mountain streams, mossy embankments, little bridges and towering forests and some very nice views made the walking easy. Plenty of bear warnings along the way, so we made sure we stayed alert, and Beth made sure that she kept making a noise. Beth actually bought a bear bell at a sporting goods store in Namba. She had fears that she had invited her friends over to join us on a walk and that it would be just our luck to have them eaten by a bear, so the bell was procured to afford some protection. What Beth had forgotten though is her propensity to charge out ahead when walking, so the bell was really only going to protect her for most of the time. All academic though, the bell proved to be more annoying and disturbing than the prospect of a bear, so it remained muffled in the backpack. I think any bear in its right mind would take one look at Beth, sum her up as someone not to be messed with and run away.

During our walk we received messages from S that he had arrived at our accommodation, and it was most inviting. We were happy to hear that, because tomorrow is C’s birthday, and we had tried hard to ensure some swish accommodation to celebrate adequately. Our walk today takes us to the first of the grand shrines at Kumano Hongu-Taisha from whence we will Catch a bus to our accommodation at Kawayu Onsen. After a bit of a look around the shrine complex, which was very impressive, we took ourselves out to have a look at the enormous Tori gate just outside the town of Hongu and then caught our bus.

Kawayu Onsen, as the name implies is a hot spring town on the Oto river and our large hotel, where we will be staying the next two nights, is essentially the town centre. Our rooms are beautiful, large Japanese style with tatami mats, low table and a gorgeous outlook from the 6th level out along the river. Just below our window beside the river was a mixed gender outdoor bath where swimming trunks were allowed. Beth and I had no excuse, so we togged up and had a go. It was very nice indeed.

Dinner was a full on Japanese set with as many courses as you like. The only catch was that you needed to gather your own food, bring it back and cook it on the pot at your table. It was all good fun and we ate wonderfully well.

The next day was theoretically a rest day from walking, and we had arranged for a traditional boat ride in the afternoon down the Kumano river to Shingu, home to the third grand shrine, Kumano Hayatama-Taisha. Only problem was that when we woke up it was absolutely bucketing down. All morning as the rain kept belting down, I was expecting an email from the boat company advising it had been cancelled, but Beth insisted that her weather app had the rain stopping early afternoon, so all would be fine. The rain did stop about midday, but not only did it stop, the skies turned blue and the sun shone brightly. It was an absolutely beautiful day. I stopped looking for my email. We set off and walked the few kilometres to the bus stop and caught the bus to the boat landing. Everything was falling into place. We thought the gods were with us, but in fact they were just messing with us. The huge amount of rain which had fallen in the morning meant that the river was very high and flowing swiftly, making for dangerous conditions and a cancelled boat ride. The boat people very nicely returned us to our hotel. The boat trip was off, but that just gave us an opportunity to do something else. We went for a walk out to the very lovely old Onsen town of Honguchowataze-Yunomine, where to celebrate C’s birthday, we boiled eggs in the hot spring in the middle of town (11 minutes exactly were the instructions from the lady selling eggs) then feasted upon them. A dual birthday and delayed Easter celebration. We had a lovely time.

After our non-walking day which featured quite a bit of walking, Beth and I summoned up the courage to take a communal bath in the proper way. It is quite a process. First you need to undress and put on a yukata (Japanese robes), then you take your towel down to the bath house for your gender, shower in the open area (in full view of every body), soap and scrub yourself almost until you bleed, rinse thoroughly and then slowly enter the tub and quietly enjoy the bath with whoever is in it at the time. Apart from the embarrassment of nakedness, it all sounds pretty straightforward, but it is actually quite nuanced and there are a heap of quirky little customs to observe which are not explained in any instruction manual. We learn by observation, which is a dangerous thing when nakedness is involved. Anyway, we have broken the ice now, so the prospect of communal bathing should now fill us with joy rather than terror.

A short and relatively easy day of walking the next day. An absolutely beautiful day weather wise, and the scenery continued to impress, so walking was a delight. Coffee and cake from a food truck in a most unlikely spot was a nice surprise, and a chance to sit and chat with fellow walkers. We had some misgivings about our accommodation for tonight. I got the sense when I booked it that it was really all that was left, and that sense did not leave me when we arrived at the Sansaro Café and guesthouse. It was not really either café or guesthouse, but more somebody’s home where a couple of rooms had been made available. It was fun though and we were kept warm and dry and fed sufficiently, if not in the manner we had become accustomed. What it did not do however was to provide facilities for bathing. Instead we were given tickets to use the communal bathhouse 500 metres away. Experiencing the joy of public bathing again came around quicker than we thought. Given that we were old hands at this, it was not at all arduous.

Although by just about any measure the Sansaro Café and guesthouse was very average accommodation, it was still an experience which I enjoyed, so it was with just a tiny hint of sadness that we set off the next morning for our final day of walking which we had been warned would be easily the most difficult. S opted out and agreed to meet us at the end of the walk at Kumano Nachi-Taisha. It was certainly a gruelling day, but also the most interesting and probably most beautiful day of the whole walk. We set off immediately steeply uphill, and three hours and 1000 metres of elevation later we were still climbing with almost no respite. It was very hard. My bad knee was struggling, but my good knee was worse. Throughout this walk there have been little signposts along the way telling stories of long ago tea houses, points of interest, spiritual places and the like. At the Echizen-toge pass, the high point (altitude wise) of the whole walk, there is a signpost which tells the story of the poet Fujiwara Teika, who wrote a note in his diary during his pilgrimage of 1201 stating “This route is very rough and difficult; it is impossible to describe precisely how difficult it is”. He was spot on, words fail me as well.

Having reached the highest point we then needed to descend about the same distance into Kumano Nachi-Taisha. By the time we finally stumbled into Kumano Nachi-Taisha, I didn’t want to see another step ever again. But the beautiful temple precinct, stunning gardens, impressive pagoda and magnificent Nachi falls all demanded to be seen, and all needed steps to be ascended and descended. A huge day of walking, finished off very nicely by the gorgeous Nachi area. A soothing bath and a huge meal in our minshuku in Kii-Katsuura helped to relieve some of the body aches and pains.

Our day of rest in Kii-Katsuura was just that. Only a little bit of walking to check out the port, indulge in a foot bath and wander through the fish market and then a delightful cruise out in the bay dotted with rocky islands. A very relaxing way to finish off our walk.

As a reward for our walking efforts, we are treating ourselves to a stay in a Buddhist temple in Koyasan at the end of another of the Kumano Kodo routes high in the Koya mountains, but this time we are not walking. We take a very beautiful train journey from Kii-Katsuura right around the coastline of the Kii peninsula to Wakayama, then a local train inland to Hashimoto, and an absolute gem of a train trip up Mt Koya on the Nankai-Koya line. Breathtaking scenery through the mist. Just as we thought it couldn’t get any better, we transferred to a funicular and winding bus journey, which took us further and steeper up the mountain to the beautiful and spiritual town of Koyasan.

We spent a small fortune on our accommodation in Koyasan, but it was well worth it. The temple itself was very beautiful and pretty authentic (well as authentic as you can be whilst running it as a high end hotel). The rooms were very nice without being super luxurious, and the vegetarian food was sensational in both presentation and taste. Attending an early morning prayer session was pretty special as was chatting with the head priest and being shown through the temple’s spiritual nerve centre.Had we found heaven on earth? Maybe, but we had done nothing much other than pay money to get here, so we were only tourists in heaven, enlightenment I think is a much longer journey than our comfortable pilgrimage up here.

We made a pretty good fist of seeking out and exploring every monument within the monastic complex of Koyasan and taking the atmospheric stroll through the amazing Okuno-in, a two kilometre path leading through towering cedarwood forests to the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi, the founder of Shingon Buddhism. Lining the path and scattered through the forest is around 200,000 memorial stones, big and small, simple and ornate and up to 1300 years old. This is the largest cemetery in all Japan, and considered the holiest place in Koyasan. A reflective and contemplative stroll amongst the dead is sometimes good for the soul, I think.

We are now somewhat getting into go home mode. Just a few days in the Mt Fuji lakes area to come, then a couple of days in Nikko and Tokyo will wind up what has been an immensely enjoyable holiday.