Issue 22 - (mostly) happy trails
A possibly weekly email about what's been going on in my brain
16 - 22 April 2023
Well, I definitely wanted to get away from the crowds and all I needed to do was trek into the sparsely populated interior of the Kii Peninsula. I wouldn't say the week has been restful, but it has been restorative, the bustle of Osaka and Kyoto ebbing first with Mount Koya and then with my walks this week along the Kumano Kodo trails.
Kumano Kodo
The series of trails across the Kii Peninsula link together three main shrines - Hongu, Hayatama, and Nachi - and Shinto pilgrims used the trails for over a thousand years, purifying themselves at various sub-shrines along the way. So there is a deeply spiritual element to the paths, made abundantly clear in the chunky guidebook my tour company forwarded me several weeks prior to embarking. My plan was to spend six days doing walks of various lengths across the core, easiest route - the Nakahechi trail. In theory I could have done the Kohechi trail which starts at Mount Koya, but every guide says that is a lengthy, challenging route, and as I told my travel agent when planning this part of my trip: I'm a more of a walker than a hiker.
Day 1
I had an inauspicious start to my trails: I somehow managed to thoroughly mis-book my taxi to the train station, I then didn't manage to get a seat reservation in time for the train, then it started to rain. A lot. Arriving at Kii-Tanabe, I was run through my itinerary by a lovely and very knowledgeable local who furnished me with up-to-date bus timetables, maps, weather reports and more; and of course when I was asked me if I had any questions, I didn't, but I sure did half an hour later on the bus to the trailhead at Takijiri.
The first few hundred metres of the Nakahechi route are infamous for their steepness. Combined with the rain and fumbling with an umbrella amongst the low tree branches, it was a tough start. I wasn't alone though, the bus carried an eclectic mix of Europeans and South Americans all embarking on the same trek; some looking distinctly better prepared than others, surely white trousers aren't ever appropriate walking gear? Beyond that introductory hill though, the remainder of the two or so hour walk was a pleasant if damp introduction to the kind of trails I'd be following for the next few days.
Even better, at the end of it in Takahara was an absolutely lovely little B&B run by the most welcoming family you could imagine. The view that evening was obscured by the rain, but a Canadian couple who were using the other room were good company and it had been a while since I'd had a good natter.
Day 2
My route today was flexible, potentially being the longest of the trip taking somewhere in the region of six to eight hours according to my guide. It had been right on the money with its estimate of two to three hours yesterday, so after a filling breakfast and a brief farewell chat with the Canadians (who were spending a paltry three weeks in Japan), I picked up my lunchbox and set out shortly after eight.
The weather had cleared up sometime during the night sending the local wildlife into a shouting frenzy throughout the night (best guess: frogs in the rice terraces); but clear skies meant the view from the B&B was glorious, and the mix of bright sun and a cool breeze made it a perfect day to plod through forests and quaint villages.
It wasn't until a few hours in that I saw another walker on the same trail: he always kept a hundred metres or so ahead of me as I ambled around shrines, dutifully stamping the book that I'd received during orientation. I eventually caught up with him at a rest stop as he ordered some rice balls from a local. Turns out that he was doing the same route as me, but instead of getting the bus to his accommodation at the end of it like I was, he was carrying on. Way on. "I thought I'd do two legs in one day" he said casually as I mentally weighed up where he should be at this point on my map. He seemed awfully cavalier about doing potentially fifteen hours of walking. I wasn't quite ready for lunch yet so bid him good luck and wandered off.
He eventually caught up with me an hour later as I devoured the phenomenal lunch box packed by the B&B for me. His only comment as he jogged past: "I did the math and think I'm going to have to get a move on!" I wished him good luck. I hope he got where he needed to.
My route meanwhile intersected with the main road several times throughout the day, so if it had been rotten weather or my legs threatened to fall off I could have done a couple of hours and jumped on the bus. Feeling energised though, I did the full route and managed it in five and quarter hours, so slightly less than the guide's lower estimate. The bus arrived punctually and deposited me at Kawayu Onsen, directly in front of my next accommodation: a chaotic but good natured minshuku.
Day 3
My schedule for the day had me taking a bus to the start of a relatively short trail, walking, then taking the bus back. This took me directly to the first main shrine of the Kumano Kodo - Hongu Taisha. Unfortunately the only bus that ran that route in the morning left shortly after 8am, which meant despite wanting to do nothing more than sleep in, I was up at a wholly uncivilised hour to afford me enough time to eat breakfast and get ready for another day of walking.
Honestly, the bus did an awful lot of the climbing, meaning the walking I did was mostly a gentle downhill meander that offered several excellent rest stops and views over the approach to the shrine below. The shrine itself was well appointed with some oversized calligraphy done by the head priest, as well as all the usual paraphernalia of a well visited temple. Enough that I entirely forgot to get my stamp there, and I was well down the immense set of steps and towards Oyunohara before I realised. The giant torii there is exactly what it sounds like: a 34m high, steel torii gate that you can see for literally miles around.
After another bento lunch, I weighed up my options: I could jump on the bus and go to my next accommodation in Yunomine Onsen straight away, or I could walk Dainichi-goe which would do what the bus did, but with my legs. Perhaps it was hubris from "beating" the estimate on my walk yesterday, perhaps it was the start of heat exhaustion from the magnificent weather, but whatever it was, it made me ignore the climb/descent for that particular walk. ~2km length, with 250m gain and 190m loss. So effectively a triangle.
Part way up the ascent I propped my self up against a tree, trying to not look like I was about to keel over, as two walkers ambled down the other way. "How long left is there?" one of them asked me. "About ten minutes" I managed between gasps. "Finally! Good luck with the climb, the view is amazing!" I don't know if they were trying to encourage me or if they were just pathological liars, because there was no view. Just stone steps, and tall trees, and heat, and sweat. You would think going down would be easier, but no, this was frequently precipitous and knotted with tree roots and uneven steps waiting to trip you up.
Thankfully my accommodation for the next couple of nights had a very well appointed onsen that was perfect for dealing with aching muscles.
Day 4
My guidebook had this down as a rest day and recommended I do Dainichi-goe which I did yesterday. With no desire to re-do that particular route, I figured I'd do the Akagi-Goe, a trail with the same starting point as yesterday (so a now familiar bus journey away) but it would take me directly back to Yunomine Onsen rather than via Hongu Taisha. "Not many people walk that!" the chap at the front desk of my ryokan said as I described my plans, too cheerfully for this time of morning. I should have known then that didn't bode well.
The route started well enough with a pleasant stroll past some construction work on the nearby river and a quiet wooded trail, but soon descended (literally) into misery. As the route wasn't as popular, fist sized rocks littered the path along with several layers of dry leaves that hid gnarled roots and foot-sized potholes making progress slow and treacherous. It was this day I stumbled and tripped the most.
Grumpy, sweaty, and a little grimy I stomped back to my accommodation shortly after midday only to be met with very well meaning questions from one of the front desk staff: when would I like dinner, what about breakfast tomorrow, you want a shuttle to the bus stop? I knew they were just doing their job, but all I wanted to do was slump in my room and devour the pack of not-Oreos that I'd just bought.
Day 5
Today was definitely, actually going to be a rest day as I didn't even really need to walk anywhere: I'd be getting a boat, just like the pilgrims used to. Only this boat had a motor and also a guide with a loud speaker. Just like old times?
After a practically luxurious 8:30am bus to the boat launch, I was met by our tour guide - a peppy lady with a fantastic grasp of English despite her protestations that she was just a beginner. It was threatening to rain, so after donning my waterproofs and gripping my ostensibly weather sealed camera, I said goodbye to my day bag for the duration of the trip (it only had my camera lenses, passport, Kindle etc. in it, nothing important). Just before 10am, myself and four other tourists boarded the flat bottomed boat (they make the rocking world go round) and set off.
As conveyed by our guide, the pilgrims of yore used to take the same boat route after inclement weather made the nearby paths dangerous or impassable, something that's especially true now as the same year as the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake also saw a typhoon in the area destroy large swathes of the cliff-side trails. So if you wanted to do the "full" Nakahechi route, you now had to take the boat. Apart from tidbits like that, there wasn't a lot to see on the river that weren't "rocks shaped like other things". This didn't mean the trip was boring, just being out on the water after so much time walking was a pleasant change of pace, and the tour guide's flute recital next to one of the sacred islands was a joyous end to the journey.
We were all dropped off at the (for me) second main shrine of the Kumano Kodo: Hayatama Taisha (I remembered the stamp this time). On the advice of the boat tour guide I also ascended the 500+ steps (well there goes it being a rest day) of the nearby Kamikura shrine to see, well, a giant rock, Gotobiki-iwa. It was a pretty good rock.
With little else to do in Shingu that wasn't heading backwards along the walking route, I headed to the train station to wait for my train to Kii-Katsuura, have lunch, and watch the heavens open with an almighty downpour waking the dozing taxi drivers lining the station approach. My accommodation for my final two nights on the peninsula was a ryokan hotel called Katsuura Gyoen which has breathtaking glamour shots on its website, but the reality is a little more downbeat. Likely built during the boom-time of the 80's or 90's it has an air of faded opulence, with palatial rooms and grand dining halls for the (by my count) seven sets of guests staying. Maybe its just off season.
Day 6
My last full day on the trails and this day really was a rest day, with a bus to Daimonzaka which is a (checks notes) oh, a 1km long stone staircase. Well, at least I checked off the last main shrine, Nachi Taisha. And the nearby three-storey pagoda and Nachi waterfall were very picturesque and pleasingly different from the two other main shrines that were similar even down to their layout.
And with that, my trails on the Kumano Kodo came to an end. Kii-Katsuura really is as my guidebook described it: a sleepy little fishing town. So while my meals were a gauntlet of things with eyes, there was little else to do except finally rest my legs and prepare myself for Nagoya, and finally Tokyo. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and though I was conservative with how much of the trail I walked versus watched through a bus window, six days felt like the right amount of time for me; I am after all a city boy at heart, despite endlessly grumbling about the crowds.
The next ten days
- 23rd Apr - transfer to Tokyo
- 24th Apr - day trip to Kamakura
- 25th Apr - Tokyo
- 26th Apr - Tokyo
- 27th Apr - Tokyo
- 28th Apr - Tokyo
- 29th Apr - Tokyo
- 30th Apr - Tokyo
- 1st May - flight back to the UK
- 2nd May - sadness
This was hand-crafted by John.