life, upside down: Trip to the Kii Peninsula III – walking the Kumano Kodo (part I)

The last cherry blossoms we saw: sending us off from Koyasan with good tidings

"Official" start of the Kohechi route outside Koyasan
(it's not official until you have your photo taken in front of a guidepost)

Day 1

From Koyasan the next part of our trip was walking the Kumano Kodo Kohechi route. The Kumano Kodo is a series of pilgrimage trails in the Kii Peninsula connecting the three Kumano Grand Shrines: Hongu Taisha, Nachi Taisha, and Hayatama Taisha. These three Grand Shrines are collectively known as the Kumano Sanzan: the three holy Kumano mountains and head shrines of 3,000 other Kumano Shinto shrines in Japan.

The different pilgrimage routes are collectively known as the Kumano Sankeimichi. The Kohechi route is the route which runs along a north-south axis from Koyasan to Hongu Taisha, where it connects with the Nakahechi route to continue on to Nachi Taisha. This was our itinerary: four days walking the Kohechi and two days walking the Nakahechi.

"Running through the central part of the Kii Peninsula from south to north, this pilgrimage route is the shortest route connecting Kumano Sanzan and Koyasan. This is one of the toughest among the Kumano Sankeimichi, with three peaks exceeding the altitude of 1,000m along the way. This route was mainly used by traveling worshipers and merchants - used as the road for ordinary people, so to speak - since the Medieval Period of Japan." – official signboard

Two-lane forestry track. This part of the Kohechi route has been turned into a vehicle access track (we even saw a serviceman on a motorbike about an hour into our walk.)

The Kumano mountains

In Koyasan the Kohechi route starts (or ends, although we only saw people walking from Koyasan toward the Kumano Sanzan, not the other way around) at the southern edge of town. We walked up a quiet residential street which turned into an old forestry access road heading into the mountains. The road climbs quickly through the forest, reaches the top of a ridge and becomes a track. winding along the top of the ridge. The first section of this trail was moderately open, with views of the green mountains to the south before sending us back under the trees.

Eventually the trail became no longer vehicle accessible. After the first Susuki-toge Pass, the path narrowed and headed back down into the valley. We did see some old abandoned logging equipment: a huge pulley used to bring logs up the mountainside and the engine which used to run it. The region is still logged in some areas, but even though we saw plenty of felled trees we didn't see any other evidence of logging.

Our first day of walking was definitely the least strenuous, due to the fact that the old route now intersects with roads. From Susuki-toge Pass we headed down into a river valley, crossed a bridge and then headed back up another old forest access road which was incredibly steep and narrow, which later connected with a newer, wider paved road. The trail went between these roads (or rather, the new roads followed the old Kohechi road on and off) until we reached a motorway, which we had to walk along for just a few kilometres. Then back to the trail through the trees, along another old forestry access route along a ridge, and switching back and forth again between paved road and the dirt trail as we made our way down into the next river valley.

Sign along the roadway warning motorists to watch out for pilgrims

View with Koya-maki (Koya Pine) in the foreground

New road following the old road. Even though we spent a good amount of the day walking
on various roads, apart from the motorway we only saw one vehicle.

Ojizo-sama with Koya-maki offerings along the trail

Guidepost Ojizo-sama

Heading down we began to see red azaleas, my favorite sight along our travels

Taking a shortcut to the Omata valley

Kawarabi-sou, the minshuku (inn) where we stayed in Omata in the peaceful river valley

We arrived at our inn around 3:30, checking in and meeting the two German girls who were on the same route from Koyasan to Hongu Taisha as us. They walked much faster and had much bigger backpacks than us which made me quite jealous, thinking about how easy it would be to stay in shape if you could climb Alps on the weekend whereas we had to get in shape by climbing Mount Mutton repeatedly over the weekends leading up to our holiday.

We went to Nosegawa Onsen, the local hot spring resort to clean up and refresh before dinner, which was hearty and delicious: inoshishi (wild boar) and vegetable nabe (hot pot), fish and beer. It was just what we needed to relax and prepare ourselves for the next day.

Kumano Kodo Kohechi - this way

Day 2The second day of walking the Kohechi took us from Omata to Miuraguchi. The route starts up again by climbing a hill: out of Omata, up past houses and old stone walls, past the mountain side cemetery, up and up. This section of the trail is very steep with a 600m climb up 6 kilometres, which doesn't sound like very much but it was quite strenuous. After reaching Hinoki-toge pass the climb is (mostly) over and the trail generally levels out, but we took a slight detour and first climbed to the top of Mount Natsumushi-yama and second to the summit of Obako-dake. They were both strenuous climbs but the view from Obako-dake were stunning. (The views (nonexistant) from Mount Natsumushi-yama, were not.) We ate lunch on the top of Mount Obako-dake: bentous packed by Kawarabi-sou which were delicious and filling, and then it was time to head back down.

Notably we also saw two snakes on this day. Later we found out this area does have mamushi vipers – related to the Okinawa habu snakes and just as poisonous -- but the snakes we saw were definitely not mamushi. (And here I had thought it was nice to be walking and not have to worry about snakes for once...)

Going up out of town

Still going up

Passing by the local cemetery on the hillside

Leaving the edge of town and the climb has only just begun.

A small detour off the trail: climbing Mount Natsumushi-yama

The peak of Mount Natsumushi-yama

Azaleas on the "peak" of Mount Natsumushi-yama.

Top of Mount Obako-dake

Best obentou (packed lunch) of the trip eaten with this view.

Coming down Obako-dake

Old flagstones path

We arrived in the little village of Miuraguchi late in the afternoon. This section of trail from Omata to Miuraguchi is 18.7 kilometres, but with our detours up Natsumushi-yama and Obako-dake we probably added a few kilometres to that. Unfortunately, the minshuku (inn) we were planning on staying at in Miuraguchi had to close due to a death in the family, so they had arranged for us to stay in an empty holiday flat instead. After a quiet pre-made dinner and a hot bath, it was time to go to bed and prepare for our next day.

Village of Miuraguchi

Day 3

We left Miuraguchi early the next morning, getting an early start for a long day: 19 kilometres to Totsukawa Onsen. I had read on some other traveler's accounts that they saw monkeys around Miuraguchi, so I was hopeful we might see some nihonzaru (Japanese monkeys) but no such luck. The trail is again steep as it climbs the mountain out of the Miuraguchi river valley with a 700m difference in altitude over the first few kilometres.

Flagstone steps through a bamboo grove

Wind-breaking cedar tree

Old stone wall remains

Yagura Kannon-do shrine along the path

Inside the Yagura Kannon-do: Kannon Bodhisattva, Goddess of Mercy (centre)
with two Ojizo-sama on either side.

Walking through a bamboo grove

Another old stone wall

Sake (alcohol) vending machine

It was another strenuous day, the steep climb made only more difficult by the hot weather. It was unseasonably warm and the area around Totsukawa Onsen (our destination for this day) was a little hot pocket in the Kii Peninsula with temperatures around 34C (93F!). Our two German comrades passed us relatively early on the steep incline and we saw only one other hiker: an older Japanese man we had first met at our Koyasan guesthouse and again at Kawarabi-sou. The five of us had all started this particular route on the same day and as our paths had crossed several times we developed a bit of camaraderie between us. After we reached Totsukawa Onsen, however, our paths diverged and staying at different inns and taking to different schedules, we did not see either the two girls or the older Japanese man after this day. It was a little disappointing, I had been looking forward to seeing them and hearing about their own experiences.

This area was an incredibly beautiful valley! Because of the hot weather we ended up taking a bus along the road which comprised the last segment of the walk, cutting about 90 minutes from our walk and sitting in a cool bus, admiring the scenery. I would have liked to have been able to walk it leisurely, however, because it was incredibly picturesque. It was probably a good thing that we took the bus though, because that left us more time to relax in the onsen.