The main event of my three-week sojourn to Japan was walking the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage on the Kii Peninsula.
The Kumano Kodō is a series of ancient pilgrimage routes that crisscross the Kii Peninsula, the largest peninsula of Japan. These mountainous trails are used by pilgrims to the “Kumano Sanzan” – the Three Grand Shrines of Kumano: Kumano Hongū Taisha, Kumano Nachi Taisha and Kumano Hayatama Taisha. It is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Pilgrims have been walking the routes for over 1000 years, seeking spiritual healing and enlightenment in the mountains.
I wanted to walk the Iseji route – a mountainous coastal pilgrimage and the longest of the Kumano Kodo sections – but the logistics proved too daunting for me – next time! So I went with the Nakahechi route – the most popular but also most straightforward for planning purposes. Being a purist, I set out to walk the entire thing – no shuttles between highlights, no busses from one town to the next. I wanted to walk the entire section in a completist way, which included starting at the westernmost train station of Kii-Tanabe and walking until I reached the easternmost, Kii-Katsuura. I took six days to do it, and I was successful, but not without a few hitches and improvisations.
Below is a gmap view of the area. I roughly walked the outline noted – except that I jigged north at the beginning to take the Shiome-Toge route. I screencapped this while on the train out of Kii-Katsuura.
Most of the logistics were set up at the Kumano Travel site – a very helpful local tourism group that organizes all the lodging and most of the meals based on your rough itinerary.
(I have to share this quick story as it was a highlight and a heart-opening moment: the night before I left Tanabe, I went to a tiny restaurant where an elder couple made plates of food with a “pick three” menu. I sat by an old timer who tried to chat me up, but with a language barrier. A “kanpai” (cheers) clinking beers broke the ice. Then a younger guy came in and sat by me at the bar, a JR staffer who spoke some English. The old timer had him translate a conversation for us, about where we were from (saying you’re from Seattle immediately elicits a happy exclamation of “Ichiro Suzuki!” which baseball always transcends culture and language), and what I thought of Japan and how it compared to the US (oh, I had opinions). After awhile, he got up, paid the matriarch of the establishment, said goodbye to us, and left. Then she told us in Japanese something that made my younger friend let out a cry of exclamation. I said “what what is it??” He turned to me and said “he paid! He paid for our dinner!” The matriarch followed up with a statement that the young guy translated as “everyone who comes here for a meal is family.”)
Day One: Kii-Tanabe station to Takahara, 17 miles, 3400ft elevation gain
The first day I walked through the suburbs of Tanabe, using Google Maps to find my way – the Kumano Kodo is really not marked through here. I chose the Shiiome-Toge pass route, which included a steep climb through tangering orchards, into dense woods, over the pass, before dropping down to the village of Takajiri-Oji – the “starting point” of the Kumano Kodo for most visitors. From there I walked another four kilometers to Takahara, which I thought would be an easy walk in the park but ended up being a grueling stretch of elevation – but rewarded with outstanding views.
Day Two: Takahara to Tsugizakura-Oji, 8 miles, 2700 ft elevation gain
A relatively easy walking day, and my favorite stay at Guest House Mori Nonaka. The gentleman who runs it with his wife sat with me at dinner, telling the story how he was a businessman who longed for living in the countryside. His wife talked about how much they love hosting guests and learning about other cultures, in particular relaying a story of a group of Italians, who she encouraged to speak in Italian because “it was so beautiful”. I had a gorgeous afternoon sitting on their porch, looking out over the mountains and befriending a butterfly who became fascinated with my foot – he hung out there for a good hour. Seriously, I couldn’t get rid of him.
I wrote this in my journal that afternoon:
God, this porch. Full sun + warm a few hours ago. Turned to grey and dark – but with a strong rainbow on the mountain. Now as its getting dark, a sliver of sunset across the middle of the beautiful hillside. Just a beautiful way to spend this glorious late afternoon. This – is the rest I hoped for. To read, to sketch, to chat with Rose from Perth, to stare at the hillside & the changing light and color, to feel the tickle of the butterfly chilling on my swollen feet – this is magical.
Day Three: Tsugizakura-Oji to Yunomine Onsen, 11 miles, 2600 ft elevation gain
A long walk brought me to Yunomine Onsen -an idyllic village with a natural hot spring. Here I discovered onsen eggs (eggs that are “soft-boiled” in the onsen – they are quite runny and not served warm. They were the hardest thing for me to eat of all the delicacies offered throughout my sojourn). I stayed in a traditional ryokan here, which had a private onsen in the room and meals delivered. I chilled out here, not leaving the room and luxuriated in being served a massive three-course dinner. Other than this spot, I partook in all the onsen (public baths) I encountered. It’s not hard to figure out onsen culture – the basics are you get naked, shower until you’re clean, and soak in the bath with everyone else.
Oh, and this happened to me on the trail today:
Day Four: Yunomine Onsen to Koguchi, 12.5 miles, 2200 ft elevation gain
I had to drag myself out of the ryokan and back on the Kumano Kodo trail. Here’s my journal entry at the end of this day:
Two walking days to go. Grinder today. This lodging is kinda gross but I am rolling with it. Highlights include a stuffy musty stinky room I had to air out by opening all the windows and turning the heat pump on max fan, meeting a cool young couple from Philadelphia, a good outdoor onsen soak, awful urinal cake odors in the bathroom, a decent dinner with a gentleman named Richard – a UK transplant from Sydney, the biggest most monstrous spider I’ve ever seen in the washroom, and a trail today that proved to be annoyingly busy. It’s not all that much fun, or contemplative, spending all day leapfrogging dozens of other walkers.
At the beginning of this day I was approached by another sweet old-timer, who shared he does social media posts on the Kumano Kodo, pretty much daily, as he’d had a stroke six years prior and couldn’t walk it himself anymore. Here’s his post with my video in it:
Day Five: Koguchi to Kumano Nachi Taicha, 9 miles, 4150 ft elevation gain
Yes, 4150 feet of climbing. I’ve done similar doing Mailbox Peak so figured I was up for it (be just like Beggar’s Canyon back home! lol). I thought the elevation would be too daunting for most of the other walkers I’d encountered the day before…I was wrong! More leapfrogging folks for an hour or so before I got ahead of the morning crowd and found some solitude. One guy asked me if I was a professional hiker – “nobody pays me for this” is how I responded. Wish somebody would, now that I think about it 🙂 Another person told me it looked like I was “floating down the trail” – and I did feel like I was floating. I love long walks and I love trails.
Kumano Nachi Taicha is the spiritual “end” of the Nakahechi route and was quite busy when I arrived. It has a spectacular waterfall and a large pagoda in the temple complex.
Day Six: Nachisan to Kii-Katsuura, 4.5 miles, no elevation gain.
A simple 80 minute walk from the guest lodging (a quaint house with self check-in) out to the train station, completing the Nakahechi route and my six-day pilgrimage walk. From here I took the train out to Kurashiki and Uno – the next part of my three-week Japan sojourn.
General Takes on the Walk:
Why did I come here? And, did I receive what I was looking for? I enjoy long walks. I enjoy hiking. I enjoy exploring and seeing new landscapes. The Kumano Kodo is beautiful in its way – dense forest hiking, lots of up and down elevation, foggy and humid most of the time.
I don’t know that I am changed, such that folks seek when they set out on pilgrimage. I’ve learned about pilgrimage is that one sets out seeking something – spiritual enlightenment, I suppose. I don’t really believe in enlightenment. To put it another way, enlightenment seems to be more like noticing the increasing light of a dawning morning – you have to pay really close attention to really see it happening, and the process is always slow and drawn out. Typically, we don’t discern it happening, but hopefully the light of our increasing awareness is slowly dawning on us.
But what I’ve found is that ultimately ‘finds’ oneself, as a kind of home. That is, home is not a place, so much as it is a state of being. Paradoxically, there was nothing to find, except oneself.
Not here for the zen. Not here for the seeking. It’s just me, moving around from place to place by foot.
I wrote this sketch of a poem in Koguchi:
God of my understanding,
You love me at my core. My essence.
Which I don’t really know, myself.
How then can I love you?
Feel it reciprocated?
I will begin as you do
with love for my in-breath,
adore my out-breath,
flirt with the left-step,
be dazzled by my right.
