2. Our Japanese Camino

13 May
Leaving Nara today and get a wonderful sendoff from Kayoko. We're waiting for the taxi outside with Kayoko and I say 'We don't want to keep you'.  Quick as a flash she gives me a hug, and says 'But I want to keep you!'. 

It's a beautiful sunny day today and we get an early train to Kii-Tanabe after breakfast in the station. Getting pretty confident with train travel now and there seems to always be someone at the station who can speak English. We arrive at about 11.30 and go straight to Minshuku Ryokan where we leave our cases. We buy sushi for lunch and go to eat it down by the beach, then back to sort out our stuff for the start of our walk tomorrow. That evening we meet 2 other couples about to start the Kumano Kodo, one British, one Brazilian.

Out for dinner we find a large area of small bars where you can eat Japanese-style tapas. Lots of small dishes and go from bar to bar, known as Izakaya. Good way to sample different foods, like roast ginko nuts and abalone.

14 May
We breakfast in a large room on our own sat on the floor round a low table. The breakfast is huge and Mike has to eat my fish as well as his own. This is the first time we've sat on tatami mats to eat with no well beneath the table, and Mike in particular finds it excrutiating. Despite the discomfort he manages to eat two fish (mine as well as his) as well as a really large quantity of the usual. 

We go back to the station with our cases and catch the 10.15 bus up to Takajiri for the start of the walk. The bus climbs upwards for almost an hour through small villages and past rice fields to Takajiri where there seems to only be an info centre where our and a shop, with no accommodation. We leave our cases as pre-arranged for the shuttle company to take up to our third night's stop, and just carry small packs with essentials. It's a lovely sunny warm day for the start of the walk.

The walk begins at the shrine of Takajiri-oji where we collect our first stamp. Similar system to the Camino de Santiago except the stamps are located at shrines rather than at Albergues.

The path is pretty steep initially with ancient steps and tree roots to follow. It's a hot day but the deep shade gives us the perfect walking temperature. No yellow arrows but good wooden signage when it's needed.

It's clearly a very ancient path with well worn stone steps, the path taking us through dense pine forest. We see no other pilgrims at all on this first stretch which takes about 3 hours. Eventually we begin the descent into Takahara our first night's stop.

The village is tiny and pretty high altitude. It's other name is Kiri-no-Sato which means
village in the mist' as it's high up and often shrouded in mist. On entering the village there's a grove of enormous ancient trees, a sacred spot as trees are also venerated.

These delightful flowers were growing in profusion on every wall in the village

The path into Takahara is delightful. The vista suddenly opens up and we become aware just how high up we are as we have a fantastic view down into the valley below. The banks are covered by beautiful wild flowers we've never seen before, the air is crisp and clear, and we enter past a lovely shrine venerating huge old cyprus trees.

The shrine has 3 stones wearing red bibs. We saw this frequently and never did learn what the red bibs were for but offerings of food and sake are given to the gods so perhaps they're just messy eaters

These trees are enormous, probably about 800-1000 years old and decorated with white paper prayers

Takahara Lodge is run by Jan who spoke excellent English with a slight Spanish accent having lived in both countries for many years. He's a terrific host and loved to chat and laugh a lot. The position of the Lodge is fantastic, over-looking the valley.

This is the view from our balcony. The air was full of the sound of swooping swallows, large black swallow tail butterflies fluttered around the azaleas and we had fabulous mountain views.

The Lodge has it's own onsen where we soaked before dinner. We were all pilgrims together here and were served in the large entrance hall. The food was fantastic and included fresh mountain herbs, wild veg, huge skewered prawn, beef, peanut tofu, and the usual veg, miso and rice all washed down by beer and plum wine, and served by a very sweet, attantive girl who liked to chat and practice her English. It was dark by now and we saw a large scary paper-cutter and a frog stuck on the window outside.

15 May
It's supposed to rain today but turns out hot and humid with cloud, sun and rain too.Breakfast on fish again with ume (preserved plum) which is very salty and zesty. We start off going very steeply uphill and I quickly realise I've left my sticks behind. Mike kindly goes back for them as I can't manage without.

We go steeply uphill initially past the village rice fields, then into deep dense forest

The path is sometimes paved and mostly uphill. The trees seem particularly vertical and denuded of lower branches creating strange geometric patterns

At this shrine we meet up with the Australians we'd seen the previous night. One chap is keenly photographing everything to show his poor wife who is doing the journey on buses as she's broken her foot and can't walk

I loved the old mossy stone walls and dizzy heights of the pine forest

This is Gyobi-oji shrine up on a ridge. The pathway often led us along ridges through the forest, and we'd find ourselves with steep forested slopes on both sides

Eventually we descend to a road where we find a shop and food stop where all the other pilgrims are gathering to have lunch. Once more we take advantage of the fantastic vending machines which sell hot and cold coffee, and eat our packed lunch provided by Jan.


Our next stop is Chikatsuyu-oji where we stay at the Minshuku along with the Australians. It's cheaper than Takahara and not so pretty but well placed beside the river. The town onsen is next to the Minshuku and we sit in our kimonos after soaking, and watch the river flowing past before our lovely dinner of shabe shabe which is a lot like nabe, a large bubbling bowl of broth in which we cook pork, tofu, veg and noodles.

The weather is due to change and we're expecting rain tomorrow. As it gets dark we can see fire flies by the river

16 May
Over dinner the previous night the owners had gone through routes with everybody to make sure we knew where we were all going. This is incredibly helpful as it's complicated with route changes due to path erosion, a very long day's walk, and bus detours.


The Aussies leave at 7 to do a 20km hike but we decide to set off later and do only half that combined with a bus trip. It's raining gently but soft and warm and really pleasant.

We pass a rather unusual shrine to a TV set on the way out of the village . . .

. . . and this rather sad and beautiful lady scarecrow in a field as we climb out of the village

We're still going uphill most of the way but mainly along tiny village roads rather than forest paths and we begin to get a feel of the life of the Japanese country people who live in these remote mountain villages. I think only one car passes us the whole day and we see just one group of walkers.

We're passing through hillside villages so get wonderful misty views across the valley

We're warm and damp and it's obviously great weather for wild life. We see deer, land crabs and huge worms

So here we have the best wildlife shot of all: a snake halfway through eating a worm, I've rarely seen Mike so excited

We arrive at Tsugizakura-oji, a large shrine on the hillside set in a grove of giant cyprus trees. You can just spot me with my brolly at the foot of the stairs. The shrine is at the top, many of the them have pairs of lions or dragons guarding them and there is always a bell to ring and a little box for your coins

Shortly afterwards we get to a country road and are delighted to find this happy little chap serving chilled coffee for free outside a small dwelling. How kind is that!

While waiting for the bus we saw more black swallow-tails on the rhodedendrons

Eventually we are led down to the main road where we wait for the bus. It's drizzling quite a lot now and we eat lunch, waiting an hour for the bus.

Yunome Onsen is a quaint touristy place though seriously under-developed. We find our Minshuku, dump our stuff, check our suitcases have arrived and take a wander round the town, bumping into a few pilrims we know. We start at the famous 1000 year old onsen which is the only World Heritage UNESCO onsen in the world. We pay our money, get our tickets and wait our turn just by the bridge.

You hang your ticket number on the hook outside and are allowed half an hour, maximum 2 people. Once inside you undress and climb down into the boiling hot water. Cold can be added from a separate tap

The hot stream runs through the centre of the village and has a pool sectioned off for the boiling of eggs much like the Maori hangi

Our little Minshuku is good, though the dining room is traditional Japanese style so a bit painful on our knees. Really good meal again with all the usual items plus savoury custard, nabe, sashimi and pickled mackerel, all served on beautiful individual dishes. The lady owner is a little eccentric and laughs a lot, while explaining to us foreigners how to eat various items, and telling us about her organic vegetables. After dinner we wander around the town which is all lit up prettily in the dark.

17 May
A beautiful sunny day after the rain yesterday. We breakfast then leave our cases with our sweet landlady as they're being transported to the next stop. We say our goodbyes, bowing like mad. Today is our final day of walking, switching from the Kumano Kodo to the Kumano Dainichi-goe between Yunome Onsen and the Hongu Taisha shrine. It's a fabulous walk through forest up mostly up and down stone steps and quite steep in parts.

There are a few small shrines and again the trees are very tall and perpendicular

It's not a long walk and before long we find ourselves descending into Hongu Taisha. Immediately we encounter a couple of coachloads of Japanese tourists, also here to visit the shrine. We sit down on the grass to eat a snack and a kind tourist comes over and presents us with a large cotton napkin.

Just as we enter the town we come across a wall covered in this rather lovely wild flower, we'd seen it before, just as we entered Takahara, so it's obviously a common weed but so delicate and very Japanese somehow

We walk along the path towards the huge arch which is the proper entrance to the holy shrine, and we find this rather cute dragon guarding a water trough. Dragons seem to be the animal of choice here to guard the temples.

The arch is huge and leads through rice fields to the visiter centre where we learn about the Dual Pilgrim Badge for people like us who have done both caminos

It just so happens that the Japanese Prime Minister is also visiting the centre at the same time as us, so there were a lot of officials milling around. We also spot out hostess from Yunome Onsen shaking hands with him

There are a lot more steps to climb up to get to the temple . . .

. . . and another cute dragon

The 3-legged crow is the symbol of the Kumano Kodo, here he sits above the letter box

This cool dude queues up and waits his turn to pray at the shrine

We have a good look round the temple, find a restaurant for lunch, then catch a bus to the start of our boat trip. Apparently this is the traditional mode of transport for Japanese Emperors who, having walked the Kumano Kodo, would travel by boat down the Kumanogawa River to Shingu, the third and final shrine.

So here we are all togged up for the trip down the river

The water was a lovely milky turquoise colour. At one point the boatmen cut the engine and we drifted along while one of them sang to us then played a haunting melody on his bamboo flute.

It was a memorable journey with the younger boatman giving us a running commentary in Japanese followed by English. We saw cormorants, kites, and then Mike spotted a family of monkeys up on the cliffs. It's the first time monkeys had been seen on the trip so we were all very excited. At Shingu we disembark and are given a ride to the centre of town where we look round the Hongu Hakayama Temple from which we walk to the train station and catch the train to Kii-Katsuura. We get talking to a fellow passenger, a Japanese Canadian woman whose staying at the same hotel and bump into a few other pilgrims also staying there. We're not happy with our room as it's small and dark, we're promised a move the next day.

Of course this town is famous for it's tuna and most restaurants reflect this, but we also have some great clams in broth, tuna sashimi and tempura, and whitebait. The town has a large fish market specializing in tuna.

18 May
 We wake early and set off to see the fish market. Loads of kites wheeling over-head, obviously attracted by the fishy smell.

So this is the market seen from the viewing platform above and from the harbour (below). Visitors aren't allowed down amongst the fish but we watched the men weighing, labelling and packing the tuna as they were sold by auction. The heaviest we saw weighed 76 kg.

We're off to our final shrine today, the Kumano HayatamaTaisha, so we take a bus to the foot of the hill, then walk up thousands of steps to the top. Of course we could haver stayed on the bus and got off at the top but that would be cheating, and it was a rather lovely climb up through huge old cedars. 

The steps went onwards and upwards a long way, then once past the cedars there were more flights of stairs to climb

And here we are at the top, with temples and shrines all around us

This ancient pagoda is built with the waterfall background and set in pretty gardens. The waterfall is the reason the temple is here at all, the Shinto belief in the holiness of natural wonders

After a bad lunch by the bus stop we get home, have a quick sleep and go to the fancy onsen on one of the island hotels. We have dinner with Rick and Jen, the British couple we'd met at the start of our camino. So our camino is officially over having seen the three major Shinto shrines.


19 May
Morning rain. We sort out our trip to Tokyo via Nagoya, then realise we've booked a hotel in the wrong town for our last night, as we're flying out from a different airport then we arrived in. Weather clearing after lunch so we take a boat trip round the islands. See 2 flying fish, and they can't half travel through the air!

We're the only ones on the boat as it's only just stopped raining. The boat cruises round in between the small islands

Weather clearing and becoming very warm and humid

Next we choose to do the Disney Onsen Experience. One of the largest island hotels has 6 onsens all on different levels, with different temperatures and designs. We went prepared wioth our kimonos so we wouldn't have to be getting changed back into our clothes all the time. It was a bit of a maze at first but we soon worked out what was where and set off to complete the marathon.

So here I am at the very top of the island having completed about 4 onsens. We rode the biggest escalator in the world to get up to this point

 Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take cameras into the onsens for obvious reasons (everyone's naked) but it was an interesting way to spend the afternoon. My favourite one was right at the bottom of the hotel complex in a cave at the very edge of the island. It was open to the elements and you could stand (naked) watching the waves smash against the rocks just beside you. Amazingly noisy and hypnotising.

It's quite tiring having so many hot soaks. We got the ferry back just as the sun was setting.

 That evening we ate out at the Kobe beef restaurant. Very fatty but delicious.