Friday, October 24, 2025

Japan - Part 4 - Japanese Alps

After we finished the Kumano Kodo trail with Jan, we picked up a rental car at the Osaka airport and spent  a little over three weeks in the Japanese alps - the goal was to do a lot of hiking but since many of the 'hard' hikes are also quite technical, we ended up doing more easy/moderate hikes in addition to seeing some sites.  Since we were in the alps in October the leaves were starting to change to beautiful yellows and reds, though we left the alps about 2 weeks short of peak season.

Nagano

We stayed five nights in Nakano (just north of Nagano which was the home to the 1998 Winter Olympics). We chose this location as it is closer to the national parks.  The area is surrounded by lush mountains and when we were there, there were tons of apple orchards growing. 

Accommodation:

Route Inn Grand Nakano Obuse - We had a small but comfortable room with two twin beds (called "modest twins", vs "Hollywood twins" which are pushed together!), a mini-sofa and desk and mini-fridge. The place was super clean and had laundry facilities in the lobby. We had all breakfasts in the room - yogurt and granola that we bought at the supermarket. And one evening we got sushi from the store and had it for dinner in our room.

Activities:

We tried to go to the snow monkey park (Jigokudani Yaen-Koen) but the sign at the entrance said that the monkeys had not yet come down from the mountains.  So, we went Shiga Kogen which is a major ski area in the Joshin-etsukogen National Park.  We stopped in the visitor center and got some helpful hiking ideas from a guide who spoke English.  In this park, we hiked the following:

Biwa-ike Lake and Mt Asahi - We hiked for 2 hours - 5 miles and 1.1K elevation gain - around Biwa Lake and up a small hill called Mt Asahi.  We saw nice views of the lake from the top.  The leaves are starting to turn but it's not quite peak season yet.

Biwa-ike Lake

Big Scenic Circuit - We hiked several of the more popular trails in the park that connect in one big loop. The hike was 10.5 miles and 2.6K elevation gain and took 6.5 hours.  We hiked by several ponds/lakes including the largest lake in the area called Onuma. We also hiked up Mt Shiga which stands at 6.5K feet high and was volcanic over 250K years ago.  Parts of the trail were very nice and parts were quite steep and muddy. The scenery changed from jungle/moss, to wetlands, to forests and to mountains.

Onuma Lake

Okushiga Valley Walk - This was a 2 miles walk along a river with beautiful waterfalls.  It was mostly flat with an undulating trail. The leaves were starting to change so it was quite pretty. 

Okushiga Valley Walk

Nagano Walking Tour - On our final morning, we did this three hour walking tour of Nagano. The tour took us to Ogawanoshodaimonten where we had freshly made oyaki which is the traditional dish of Nagano and is a wheat dumpling stuffed with vegetables and cooked over a fire.  We tried the nozawana (which is pickled greens) and eggplant - both very tasty.   We then went to Zenkoji Temple, passing along the Main Street leading up to it with traditional style buildings that are shops and restaurants - very cute area.  The temple was very nice but in particular the grounds were beautiful.  The temple was founded in the 7th century and is known to house the oldest statue of a god in Japan - although no one has seen said statue in over 1300 years! We then walked over to the Nishinomiya Shrine which is a cute small shrine in a traditional neighborhood.  Our last stops were to do a sake tasting at Nishinomon Yoshinoya, a brewery that was founded in 1637 and then we stopped for ice cream at one more place before ending the tour. 

Oyaki at Ogawanoshodaimonten

Zenkoji Temple

Restaurants:

Tam Curry - A cute and very clean Japanese curry place near our hotel - we had dinner here our first night each getting a combo of the keema and butter chicken curries - delicious!

Togakushi Iseya - We had not had soba noodles yet so we had dinner at this soba restaurant near our hotel.  We ordered two types of soba - one that came in the broth and one where you have to dip into a broth.  They tasted pretty similar to us! They spoke no English so we resorted to pointing to order.

Soba noodles at Togakushi Iseya

Nepalese Restaurant - We don't know the name of this place as it was in kanji - it was located near our hotel and we had dinner here one night. We got samosas, chicken tikka, mutton curry, rice and cheese naan.  Everything was delicious!

Tamuro - An Izakaya restaurant near our hotel, we had dinner here and it was our worst meal of the trip.  We ordered some sushi but the fish was cut way too thick so we didn't finish it.  We also had some skewers which were pretty good and fried chicken.  

Matsumoto

We stayed in Matsumoto for four nights.

Accommodation:

Tabino Hotel - This hotel that is centrally located downtown was new and clean and the room was on the smaller side but it was nice.  We had a king sized bed with sofa, table, and washing machine.  Breakfast was included so we had that each morning which consisted of a buffet of mostly Japanese foods - it was pretty good. 

Activities:

Utsukushigahara Open Air Museum - On our drive to Matsumoto, we stopped at this open air museum that is the sister museum to the one we saw in Hakone.  This one was on top of a mountain ridge so the scenery was beautiful.  The sculptures were all very modern and the grounds looked like they needed a bit more up keeping. 

Utsukushigahara Open Air Museum - We called this one "Barbie"

Ishii Miso Brewery - This miso brewery was founded in 1868 and is one of the few that still make miso with traditional processes.  They use all local soybeans, ferment the miso in wooden barrels and age their miso for three years. We got a brief tour by the 6th generation President and then got a taste of their miso soup which was rich and tasty.  We wanted to have lunch there but we couldn't find anyone to order so we left.

One of the barrels at Ishii Miso Brewery

Daio Wasabi Farm - This is the largest wasabi farm in Japan and while they do not provide tours, we walked around the grounds to see the wasabi fields growing in very clear streams of water that is provided by the nearby rivers.  We then had a wasabi croquette and wasabi ice cream - both very good. 

Wasabi Field at Daio

Matsumoto Castle - This is one of the few castles that has not been damaged by war/fires. It was built in the late 1500s and was used as a fort to protect the surrounding areas.  The building itself is beautiful as are the grounds and gardens.  When we arrived, we saw that there were free English guides available so we got one who told us a bit of the history and showed us a few good spots on the grounds to take photos.  He also waited in line with us for a while, telling us more about the castle, while we waited to enter inside. There are some artifacts inside but the better part is just seeing the construction inside and climbing to the top to see the views - the steps to the top were quite steep! 

Matsumoto Castle

Nawate and Nakamachi Shopping Streets - We walked up these two shopping streets with shops in traditional houses/buildings.  Nawate had more souvenir type shops whereas Nakamachi had more boutique stores. 

Nakasendo Trail (Magome to Tsumago) - We walked this 8km section of the famous Nakasendo trail used by samuarais and merchants to go between Tokyo and Kyoto in the Edo period.  There were over 60 post towns (Magome and Tsumago are two of them) along that route where travelers would stop to eat and/or sleep.  The towns themselves were very cute with traditional buildings throughout and the trail was nice - weaving through forests, towns and waterfalls.  Some of the trail was old stones while other parts were dirt. We got there by driving first to Tsumago, taking a bus to Magome and then hiking from Magome back to Tsumago.

Tsumago

 Nakasendo Trail

Restaurants:

Beans - We had dinner at this Italian restaurant around the corner from our hotel.  It was better than we expected - we had pasta with meat sauce and a pizza with bacon, sausage and pepporoni.  The owners were very nice. 

Thai Lotus - We clearly have been missing spicy food because we could not stop raving how good this was.  We had a red and green curry.  As usual, the people serving us were super nice as well.  

Cohiludo - We had lunch in this modern cafe near the castle - we tried three different types of oyaki - pork, mushroom and apple.  Apple was the best!

Wachinoya Pastry - Located in Tsumago, we had oyaki for lunch from here. We tried three different types - meat, eggplant and walnut.  The meat and walnut were quite good.

Vieni Vieni - Our final dinner in Matsumoto and this was the best by far.  It's a cute, small Italian restaurant.  We sat at the bar where we could watch the chef do his work in a tiny kitchen.  We shared a cacio e pepe pasta and a seared pork with veggies - so delicious!

Kamikochi

We stayed in Kamikochi for five nights - it is known to be one of the prettiest valleys in the Alps. There are mountains that surround the area with a beautiful winding river. And while it was not peak leaf changes yet, it was the beginning so we were able to see some color changes. 

There are no cars allowed so you have to park in one of two parking lots and take a bus to get here - takes about 30 min via bus from the lots.  The valley is dotted with a few hotels and a few cafes but it's not really a town.

Accommodation:

Lemeiesta Hotel - The splurge of our trip and well worth it! The hotel itself is very nice and our room was amazing - very large bed (two double thick mattresses on the floor that were super comfortable), a huge bathroom and a sofa with fantastic views of the mountains.  Breakfast and dinner was included in our rate (see below).

Lemeiesta Hotel

Our room

Activities:

Hike to Myojin Pond - We walked along the river to one of the two picturesque ponds in the valley. This pond has a shrine that is for the mountain deities. The route was 7 miles round trip and took us just under 3 hours with a few stops. We also crossed the famous Kappa Bridge where there were a ton of tourists snapping pictures. We had a few oyakis for lunch at one of the cafe stands at the bridge. We did this walk again a second day but this time skipping the stop at the pond.

Myojin Pond

Kappa Bridge

Hike to Tashiro and Taisho Ike Ponds - It was a rainy day but we decided to still get a bit of exercise in so we walked 4 miles in 1.5 hours to these two ponds.  It was not as picturesque - mainly because of the clouds and rain.  We did get to see the monkeys which were adorable.  We walked back to the Kappa Bridge for more oyakis for lunch. 

Monkeys along our walk

Dakesawa Hike - This is the only 'harder' hike in the area we could do that was not technical.  It was a beautiful hike up to a hut where you could get snacks and drinks.  The views were spectacular.  The hike was 7 miles, 2.6K in elevation gain and took us close to 5 hours (with breaks). 

Dakesawa Hike

Restaurants:

Lemeiesta Hotel - Breakfast was a fantastic buffet with mostly Japanese fare but definitely the best we have had so far.  Dinner included a multi-course meal (alternating each night between French and Japenese/French) and most of the dishes were very tasty. Our favorite dishes were the beef ones but also had some nice fish dishes. 

Toyama

We stayed three nights in this port town that is on the western side of the Alps.  Being a port town, it's not very attractive but the downtown area was nice.  If we were to stay again, we would choose Kanazawa instead.

Accommodation:

Hotel Jal City - This hotel is located downtown near the train station.  It's a large, very clean hotel and while the room was small, it was very comfortable.  We had two twin beds pushed together that were quite comfortable with a sofa, mini-fridge and nice bathroom with a rain shower. 

Activities:

Kurobe Gorge Trolley Train - We did this on our drive in from Kamikochi.  The weather was a bit cloudy but we could still see views.  The train ride is 50 minutes each way with a 20 minute stop at the end before returning.  There were nice views of the rive and gorge but the stop at the end was not the greatest.  The train itself was open air with cushioned bench seats and all of the explanation was in Japanese.  

Kurobe Gorge Trolley Train

Takaoke - We drove 30 minutes to Takaoke to see the Great Buddha, one of the three great ones is Japan (the other two are in Nara and Kamakura).  This one was no where near as impressive as the other two.  We then walked around the Takaoke Castle Park which was small but nice with green lawns and statues and the Yamachosuji Historical District which had a few nice, older buildings but there were mixed in with new ones so not very impressive.  

Takaoke Great Buddha

Iwase District - We walked around this historic port area of Toyama which had some nice old warehouses that have been refurbished into restaurants, brewers and shops. Unfortunately the area was a bit dead when we were there.  We walked to the top of the Toyota Port Observation deck where we could see more of the surrounding ports. 

Murodo - Definitely the best part of this leg of the trip! This is a mountain top location with the largest caldera in Japan surrounding by several mountains, including one of the holy mountains of Japan, Mt Tateyama. To get here, we drove to the parking lot at Tateyama station and then took a cable car and a bus to the top (cars are not allowed to drive themselves to the top). We hiked around for about two hours, hiking up to a saddle and then back down and around Midorika and Mikurige-ike Ponds.  There was an area with an overlook that we could see steam coming up as part of the volcano is still active.  There is an option to continue on the journey to do the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route all the way to Nagano (via more buses, ropeways) but that would have taken 7-8 hours one way so we opted not to do that. There are a few hotels at the top at Murodo and if we come back, we would stay there for a night to do more exploring.


Murodo

Shomyo Falls - After Murodo, we drove over and then walked to this waterfall which is the tallest in Japan at 35 meters high.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy so we could not see the full waterfall but it was still impressive. 

Shomyo Falls

Day in Kanazawa:

On our way to Takayama, we spend a half day in Kanazawa, known to be a "little Kyoto". After we saw the town (which is very cute), we wished we would have stayed here instead.  We first walked around the gardens, Kenroku-en, which had been recommended by Kerstin.  The grounds were very nice with typical Japanese trees and a few nice ponds.  

Kenroku-en Gardens

We then saw the Myouryuji (Ninja Temple) which is known to have a lot of secret alleyways and compartments to ward off enemies.  There are tours available but unfortunately we did not have a reservation.  We walked around the Nagamachi Samurai District which has beautiful homes along a cobble stone street and went inside the Nomura-ke Samurai Heritage Residence which showcased what a typical samurai home looked like - it had lovely gardens.  

Nagamachi Samurai District

We also went to see the Oyama Shrine which had a tower with European design, a very nice building and nice gardens.  We then walked around the Kazue-machi Chaya district which is where they have old teahouses and Higashi Chaya district which is the Geisha district filled with traditional houses (now shows and restaurants) along cobble stone streets. Both of the district were adorable. We ended our time in Kanazawa by walking around the Omicho Market which felt more like a market than others we had been to.  While they had restaurants, they also had plenty of fish and vegetable stalls. Because were were in a time crunch, we got a few take-away items from the basement level stalls in the Kohrinbo mall. 

Kazue-machi Chaya District

Restaurants:

Kuromoji - Really cute izakaya near our hotel. We had dinner here sharing a honey cheese dip, curry snack, eggplant bruschetta, a very yummy salad and some beef.  We had to each order a drink so we got NA beer.  

Kobo Brew Pub - Located in the Iwase port warehouse district, we had lunch here.  Sadly, we did not have any beer since we were trying to be good but we had some sausages with mustard and bread.  The sausages were tasty but a bit too greasy.  The location was great in an old warehouse.  

Kobo Brew Pub

Santoshi - An Indian restaurant across the street from our hotel.  We had dinner here and shared veggie samosas, pappad, chicken curry and rice - all delicious and spicy!

Bibbi de BAL de SAN - A cute Italian restaurant near our hotel.  We had dinner here and shared a salad, pasta and pizza.  Everything was delicious. 

Takayama

We wrapped up our time in the Alps with four nights in this town, also known to be another 'little Kyoto'. We were going to visit Kiso after Takayama but had decided earlier in the trip to cut that part and instead go to the Oki Islands - thus Takayama became our last stop in the Alps. The town is very nice surrounded by hills and mountains. 

Accommodation:

Fav Hidatakayama - This hotel is more of an 'apart' hotel with limited amenities (e.g. no restaurant, limited front desk hours). Our room was large with two double beds with twin bunks above us.  We also had a nice sized sofa and coffee table with a kitchenette and washer/drier.  The bathroom was also large.  In additional to having breakfast each morning in the room, we also had dinner a few nights by picking up items from the grocery store - sushi and ramen.

Activities:

Shirakawa-go - On our drive to Takayama, we stopped to walk around this very cute, old farm village with traditional homes with thatched roofs.  Many of the buildings are now shops and restaurants and there are tons of tourists who go here but worth it - very cute.  We both thought it was the "Kandersteg" of Japan. 

Shirakawa-go

Tour around Takayama::

It was a beautiful sunny day so we did a self-guided walking tour around town.  We stopped by the Miyagawa Morning Market which consists of several stores and stalls along the river selling souvenirs and food.  We of course had to get Hida beef on a stick! 

We the walked the ~2 mile Higashiyama Promenade which is a route that takes you by many temples and shrines. We saw most of them - the most impressive being Hida Kokubun-ji Temple (famous for its pagoda, a 1200 year old ginkgo tree and the main building being the older structure in town), Sakurayama Hachimangu Shrine (dating back to the 5th century and nestled in lush surroundings), Takayama Betsuin Shoren-ji Temple (the temple itself is not that impressive but it has a beautiful entry gate), and Unryu-ji (nice grounds and views). 


Sights along our walk

While at Sakurayama Shrine, we also went inside the Takayama Matsuri Yatai Kaikan which is a hall showcasing some of the hand carved floats that are used in the bi-annual Takayama Matsuri festival, one of the three most beautiful festivals in Japan.  There are 23 floats in total with a few of them on display at the museum.

Floats in Takayama Matsuri Yatai Kaikan

The path took us up the old castle ruins hill but there was not much to see.  We did get more steps in! We then walked around the very cute Hidatakayama Sanmachi Historic District that highlights Edo period architecture - now turned into shops and restaurants.  We stopped at ABCDEFG to have one of their cookies but found it to be too dry.  We also stopped at the Onoya Brewery which is over 200 years old and makes miso and soy sauce. Unfortunately, there were not tours so we got a sample of miso and left.  We also tried to go to one of the old sake breweries but they also were not running tours and the tasting process seemed to impersonal so we bagged that idea as well.

Hidatakayama Sanmachi Historic District

Hida no Sato Open Air Museum - This is an open air museum showcasing farmer's homes and equipment. And while not as charming as the town of Shirakwa-go, it was informative with great signs and ability to go inside the homes to see how they lived.  

Hida no Sato Open Air Museum

Utsue Forty-eight Waterfalls - We are not sure what is up with the name as there are only 13 waterfalls! It was still pretty - it took us an hour to walk by all of them.

Utsue Forty-eight Waterfalls

Walk around Hida Furukawa - This town is about 15 north of Takayama and it's a mini version of Takayama - very cute with nice canals and far less tourists.  We walked around the old district, popping in Honkoji (has the largest wooden building in the Hida area) and Shinshuji Temples.  Both were very nice with pretty grounds. 

Honkoji Temple

Hida Great Limestone Cave - Known to be the highest elevation caves in Japan, this was not worth it. There are three caves totaling 800 meters in length with the first one being decent but pales in comparison to many of the other caves we have been to.

Restaurants:

Butchers - We had dinner at this Hida beef focused restaurant, sharing a salad, a sizzling shrimp appetizer and Hida beef filet with a few veggies.  The beef was really tasty but not quite Wagyu!

Butchers Restaurant

Hida Croquette - Located in the town of Hida, we grabbed a quick lunch here each getting the Hida beef croquette burger - very tasty!

Entaku - We had dinner at this Izakaya near our hotel. We had a salad, fried chicken with ponzu and Hida beef stew.  The stew was a bit disappointing but the salad and chicken were great.  


Sunday, October 5, 2025

Japan - Part 3 - Kumano Kodo Trail

After our time in Kyoto, we continued on our journey with Jan for a six day hike on the Kumano Kodo Trail, famous as a pilgrimage trail through mountains and temples.  It, along with the Camino de Santiago, are the only two UNESCO / World Heritage pilgrimage hikes. We booked our hike with Oku Japan who arranged our transportation, accommodations and baggage transfer.  They also provided very detailed instructions and guides since we were doing it as a self-guided hike.  They also helped us during the hike a couple of times: once when we missed a bus and needed a hotel pickup, and another time when a phone was left at a hotel and needed forwarded.  

The entire hike is quite long so we did the most popular section, the Nakahechi trail which was once considered the imperial route. It started from Takijiri on the western edge of the Kii peninsula and ended in Kii-Katsuura on the eastern coast. The sheer number of pilgrims who would march in long processions earned the trail the nickname ‘pilgrimage of ants’.

Map of the Kumano Kodo Trails

Start of the hike

Accommodations/Restaurants:

With the exception of the last hotel, near the airport, we shared a room with Jan at each of the places on the trail. Each of the rooms had Japanese style mattresses on tatami mats.  

Kirinosato Takahara - Located in Takahara, this was our first night on the trail. The place was super cute with beautiful views of the mountains. While we had a toilet in our room, the shower and onsen bath were shared by gender. We left the windows open and had a nice breeze at night. The mattresses were not the thickest but were still pretty comfortable.  The best part was the food - we had an amazing dinner and breakfast and they prepared a lunch for us to take away on the trail.  Everything was super flavorful. Before dinner, we had a few beers on the deck, taking in the views.  

Relaxing in our room - view from our room

Dinner at our hotel

View from our room

Chikatsuyu Sora - Located in Chikatsuyu, this was our second night on the trail. We stayed in a four bedroom guest house with shared bathrooms.  The owners were super nice and the woman (Naomi) spoke really good English.  We had dinner and breakfast with the owners and the other guest in their kitchen / dining room.  For dinner, she made lots of tasty vegetables and garlic pork and for breakfast we had eggs, rice and a few veggies as well. They made us a lunch to take with us on the trail with onigiri and a few small snacks. Shawna was so enamored with this adorable older couple that she wanted to take them back to the US!

Our room at Chikatsuyu Sora

The owners of Chikatsuyu Sora

Ryokan Azumaya - Located in Yunomine Onsen, this was our third night on the trail. We had a toilet and sink in our room and shared gender specific showers/onsen in the hotel.  Both Jan and Keith used the onsen and thought it was quite relaxing. The place was not as cute as the prior two but was clean and the guy who served us in our room was super nice and very funny.  We had dinner and breakfast in our room - both of them traditional kaiseki style meals with many small courses.  Dinner had soup, shabu shabu, rice, fish, and vegetables.  Breakfast included miso soup, fish, rice, tofu and pickled vegetables.  Some of the dishes were tasty.

Ryokan Azumaya

Breakfast for three - so much food!

Fujiya Ryokan - Located in Kawayu Onsen, this was our fourth night on the trail. It was not located near where the trail ended as the accommodations there were full so we had to take a bus back to it (more on that below). It was a very large hotel so we had our own shower as well as toilet and sink in our room.  The place was right on the river which you could bath in but unfortunately, we got there too late to enjoy it.  Dinner and breakfast were in a large dining room and again we had the multi-course kaiseki style meal that was similar to the prior place.  Some of the dishes were tasty. 

Manseiro - Located in Kii-Katsuura (a town on the coast) on the water, this was our last night on the trail and was also another large hotel where we had our own toilet, sink and shower.  It was probably our least favorite hotel as it was a bit more run down than the others - that said it was still clean.  Dinner and breakfast were served in a large dining room and were kaiseki style like the prior two nights.  The food was pretty tasty. 

View of our hotel from the pier

Dressed for dinner

Washington Hotel Kansai Airport - Hotel in Osaka near the airport, we stayed here on our last night with Jan.  We each had our own room - ours was a very small but clean room with a double bed.  We walked to a few nearby Izakayas but they were full so we ended up having dinner at the hotel - a traditional Japanese hamburger and fries (apparently we needed a break from Japanese food) - Jan paid for our dinner to thank us for the planning. Breakfast was included which was a multi-national buffet serving American, Japanese, Chinese and Indian.  The shuttle to the airport which we took the next morning to pick up our rental car to continue on our journey.  

Activities:

Each day, we hiked through the mountains and forests, seeing small shrines along the way.  The trail was very well maintained and the forests were quite beautiful with pine and cedar trees as well as ferns and bamboo.  The signs were also very clear on where to go and not go (saying "Not Kumano Kodo"!). In each town, there was a shop we could stop in to get a free gift or snack after we showed them our Oku Japan wooden tag. We could also get stamps at most of the shrines and stops along the way so Jan filled up her stamp book. In total, we hiked 44 miles and 12K feet in elevation across five days.

View on our hike

We hiked on paths like this

1st day hike: We started the hike in Takijiri and we walked 3 miles, 1.3K elevation gain to Takahara.  Parts were steep but manageable and we did it in less than 2 hours. In Takahara, we visited the oldest shrine on the hike that has trees that are over a thousand years old.

One of the shrines on the hike

2nd day hike:  We hiked from Takahara to Chikatsuyu - a total of 6.7 miles, 1.7K elevation gain and 4.5 hours.  We saw a couple of snakes - come to find out one of them was poisonous! We ate our lunch at one of the shrines about an hour before the end of the hike.  In town, we visited the Oku Japan office to ask them about the next day hike options and we walked around the town before we checked in to our accommodation. 

Great signage along the way

Chikatsuyu

3rd day hike: Our longest day, we took a bus from Chikatsuyu to Doyukawa-bashi and then hiked to Hongu, a total of 12.4 miles, 2.3K elevation gain and 6 hours.  This was interesting because the first part of the hike had been closed for 14 years because of a landslide, we hiked the re-opened leg the first day it opened.  It was this day that we saw the Kumano Hongu Taisha, the Grand Shrine which is the shrine where all of the different Kumano Kodo trails pass through in the middle. The buildings were quite beautiful.  This shrine used to be located on the river but they had to relocate it in the middle 1800s after a flood had damaged most of the buildings.  We walked over to the Kumano Hongu Torii Gate which is the tallest Torii gate in Japan and used to be the entrance to the shrine when it was located on the river.  We then went inside the Kumano Hongu World Heritage Center where they had some interesting and well-done displays about the trails and the major shrines.  After this, we took another bus to Yunomine Onsen where we stayed the night. 

Kumano Hongu Taisha

Hongu Torii Gate

4th day hike: We took a bus from Yunomine Onsen to Ukegawa and then hiked to Koguchi - a total of 9.2 miles, 2.6K elevation and 4.5 hours. There were not too many shrines on this trail but rather remains of several tea houses.  Nonetheless, it was still scenic.  We had some time to kill in Koguchi before the bus so we hung out at an outdoor cafe and had beer and snacks.  Several of the other hikers did the same.  There were not many accommodations in this town so many of the hikers had to bus back to accommodations - we had to do the same, going about 40 minutes back to Kawayu Onsen. We had to transfer buses and unfortunately we stood on the wrong side of the road for our transfer.  Thus, we and another couple from Boulder, CO had to wait for the last bus which was an hour and 10 minutes later. We called Oku Japan to see if they could arrange a taxi but by the time the taxi would arrive, the next bus would be there.  As Keith tried to spell which bus stop we were, we said "N" as in "Nancy" which we laughed because they would not know that name so we told him to use "N" as in "Nara". We hung out and chatted with the other couple while we waited for the bus.  This bus only took us to Ukegawa which meant we would have to walk another 30 minutes to our hotel but Oku had arranged to have a shuttle from our hotel pick us up from the bus stop which was awesome - they also gave a ride to the other couple from CO. When Keith asked Oku how the shuttle driver would know us, they said 'he will know' - we are the only white people getting off that bus at that time! A bit of a snafu but not too bad - we arrived at our hotel at 6:15pm. 


More views along the hike

5th day hike: Our final day and another long day, we took a taxi from Kawayu Onsen to Koguchi and then hiked to Kumano Nachi Taisha (another Grand Shrine).  The hike was fairly steep during the first half but nothing too crazy - a total of 12.3 miles, 4.2K elevation gain and 7 hours.  At the end of the hike, we explored the Grand Shrine, which is the major shrine at the end/beginning of the hike and the Seiganto-ji Temple. We walked up the Takiju-an Pagoda to see views of the area.  We walked down to the Nachi Waterfall which is the tallest single drop waterfall in Japan at 133 meters.  We ended the hike going down the Daimon-saka steps to the very end/beginning of the trail.  We then took a bus to Kii-Katsuura where we stayed the night. 

Seiganto-ji Temple

Takiju-an Pagoda

6th day: We had the morning to kill before we took our train back to Osaka so we took the bus over to Shingu to see the third important shrine of the southern section of the Kumano Kodo - Kumano Hayatama Taisha - known to be the site where the Kumano deities first descended. We then walked up to the Shingu Castle Ruins which was a large complex with stone walls with nice views of the town and bay. We took the bus back to our hotel, had a few pastries at a local cafe where we got our final Oku Japan gift (free coffee) and then took the train back to Osaka to check into our hotel and have our final night together. 

Kumano Hayatama Taisha