Kumano Kodo Adventure - Day 6

Day 6 - 5/1

The morning began with our friends inviting us again to join them in the upper room for a hearty breakfast at 7:30. The traditional Japanese breakfast, mainly composed of vegetables, was not the breakfast food that we Americans are normally used to, but was nonetheless a great start to the day.

We were on the trail by 8:15 and ready to tackle our most exhausting climb yet. Our mountain for the day led us up 1000m via a 5km trail - a steep challenge for the fittest of us. But we were happy to make it to the summit for lunch at 12 with our sweat-soaked T-shirts and empty stomachs. I gluttonessly devoured my food, leaving me with a stomach ache that delayed our descent by ten minutes while I recovered.

The descent wasn't too taxing, especially compared to our morning's steep hike, and we made good time down the slope. We hit a highway and proceeded to walk the 2.5km to the next part of the trail. This 2.5k along the roadside seemed to take longer than the entire beginning of the day. We observed that there must be something about walking along roads that makes distances seem longer and time pass slower. We exhaustedly reached the next trail head and decided to sit for a few minutes before tackling the final leg of our hike.

The last leg of our hike went through some well-worn hiking paths, which was a nice change from the more treacherous mountain trails. This path also took us to a lookout point to Honshu's giant torii gate, roughly 30m high.

We stopped briefly at a temple and took a few pictures, but were so tired of walking at that point that the temple's beauty didn't seem as appealing as the benches placed throughout its grounds. We then took a bus to our final destination at a gorgeous riverside ryokan where we soaked in the onsens, were served a delicious dinner in our room, and slept comfortably on our futons while listening to the river through our window. I noted that our nights were becoming increasingly more luxurious, which some say makes our camping expedition that much less rugged...and it's true. But we didn't mind.

Entrance to Hotel Subaru

And the hike begins

The steep climb ahead

The valley below

More rice

A few large coi

One of the many small statues along the trail

Taking a water break

At the summit

Joe and Ross entertaining themselves while I recovered

So many spectacular views along the trail

That must be the total distance traveled so far...

The weather was gorgeous that day

A view of Honshu's torii gate

The temple

A closer view of Honshu's torii gate

Our hotel that night

The river right outside our hotel. View from the window

Kumano Kodo Adventure - Day 4

Day 4 - 4/29

Miserable. We woke up at 6am to the cold, hard, wet ground and to cold and soggy sleeping bags. The tents apparently offered incomplete protection from the mountain rainfall during the night. We woke up not wanting to get up, but also not wanting to stay in the damp sleeping bag. We ate a Clif bar breakfast and were packed up in an hour. The trail offered little comfort from the rain, but it made us very grateful for our ponchos. We hiked uphill for three hours and came across a small hut established for travelers of the Kumano Kodo near the summit. We decided to break for lunch and allow ourselves a few moments of rest from the harshening rain.
Another team of hikers who we met briefly the day prior, composed of three girls, caught up to us shortly before we found the hut. They decided to eat their bento while we cooked our spaghetti and spam. They seemed amused and impressed at our efforts as we cooked the spaghetti over the gas fire. We found out that our destination for the day matched theirs and that they were staying at a small hotel in the town of Miera Guchi. Since we were not feeling up to another night in our still-damp tents and sleeping bags, they said that we should stay at their hotel, too, since there probably weren't many other options in the small town.

Then they left without telling us how to find the hotel or even the name of it.

...Not too helpful.

We continued on our wet journey through the sideways rain. The leg after lunch was all downhill, covered in wet rocks, and snaked around mountainsides sometimes offering only a foot's width of a trail to keep from falling to our most probable deaths, or at least a serious injury. Needless to say, the hike today was not the joy-filled experience we were searching for. The rain certainly made our clothes heavier, our packs slip around on our backs (and that much more burdensome), and the overall mood bleak.

As we entered Miera Guchi around 3pm, we noticed a small piece of paper with handwriting in pencil describing directions to a hotel, and we knew immediately that our fellow travellers were thoughtful enough to guide us to the warm and dry sanctuary from the rain.

We spent the night in a bungalow for $100 and were able to hang up our wet clothes...which happened to be ALL of our clothes. The bungalow had a kitchen, enabling us to cook our own feast of rice, canned veggies, mashed potatoes, and corned beef hash. The warm showers also gave us much relief for our sore legs.

Overall, the 18km hike was difficult and treacherous, only compounded by the constant rain and often fierce wind in our faces, but the day ended well with dry shelter, a warm meal, and the remedy of a warm shower.

This was perhaps the best view of our day - and a spectacular one at that

Blowing my nose. Joe's grumpy cat

An accurate depiction of our day #butfirst

One of the biggest disappointments of the day was discovering this cabin a half hour into hike that day.

Had we only walked a little further, we wouldn't have had to be soaking wet for the day.

A beautiful shot of the trail going downhill

There were several ruins along the whole trail, marked by signs we couldn't read

Allowing our clothes to dry for the night

Kumano Kodo Adventure - Day 1

Day 1 - 4/26

The following are the rememberings of my 10-day hiking adventure with Ross and Joe as we backpacked along the Kumano Kodo trail. The trail itself starts in Kyoto, passes through Mt Koya, and ends at the famous Nachi Taisha, a shrine famous for it's gorgeous waterfall. The trail is several hundred years old and was first hiked by pilgrims travelling from Kyoto to Nachi Taisha. I imagine the pilgrimage took months, but we only hiked a small portion of it over a few days. While the hiking was strenuous and pushed the limits of our physical abilities, the trip was relaxing due to luxurious evenings enjoyed at many different ryokans - which are japanese-style hotels with full service, a traditional-style meal, and usually an onsen (hot spring).

On our first day, we arrived in Osaka after a 2-hr Shinkansen/bullet train ride from Yokohama. The ride was quick since I slept through half of it.

We stayed at the Hotel Tokyu and were fortunate to have three separate beds provided to us. The room wasn't anything fancy, but had all the hospitable luxuries of a typical japanese hotel room: three sets of toothbrushes, combs, night robes, slippers, etc. We didn't stay long in our room before heading out to find an outdoor store in downtown Osaka to pick up some extra supplies. The only outdoor store we found, however, had considerably marked-up prices. I couldn't justify purchasing most of the store's goods. What I really needed was another pair of pants, preferably hiking pants, because I only had in my outfit the jeans I was wearing. Even so, I was too cheap to by the even the cheapest pants which would have cost me about $90. My plan going forward was to hope that my jeans wouldn't end up smelling to gross.

Next, we decided to see the new Spider-Man movie since Joe and I were pretty excited about its release, so we went ahead and purchased tickets two hours in advance. During that time, we searched for a quick bite to eat on the restaurant floor under the theatre. We decided to wait in a half hour line for some Osaka sushi, expecting a quick, relatively cheap dinner. The sushi restaurant took us by delicious surprise as soon as we took our first bite of the artfully-crafted sushi. We watched as the sushi chef packed the sushi rice with some wasabi and freshly-cut fish, then served us on a fancy, oversized, porcelain plate. That night was the first night that I've had fish that actually melted in my mouth! It was difficult to distinguish between the texture of the rice and various cuts of seafood. The bill didn't surprise us, but ended up being a rather good deal for the quality of sushi consumed. After that experience, no other sushi seems to taste the same.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share of the sushi restaurant or the rest of our first day, but I'll be posting the rest of the days of our adventure with plenty of pictures. I hope you enjoy reading about our travels!

Spider-Man 2 wasn't all that great.

Kumano Kodo Adventure - Day 9

Day 9 - 5/4

This day marked our last full vacation day, and our last day of hiking. The manager of our hotel was kind enough to take us into town and drop us off at our new day's starting point, which saved us the cost of the bus ride. We offered her money for gas, but she refused in typical Japanese fashion and said it was a part of the hotel's service.

We hiked about 16km, stopping briefly for lunch, which consisted of pasta, tuna, and beef jerky. We ended up climbing two shorter mountains, but we were certainly tired and worn out by the time our hike reached an end. Our packs regained their heaviness during the hike and our legs, their soreness. We were very happy to find a bus stop 2km from our next hotel; unfortunately the highway was a little dangerous to walk along and the next bus didn't arrive for another hour and a half. We decided to call the hotel to ask if they could pick us up and within only a few minutes, a van pulled up with the hotel's name posted on its side and we were greeted by a kind, elderly gentleman.

We were at our hotel within two minutes and were eager to take off our sweaty socks and jump in the shower. We had a delicious Japanese dinner in the hotel dining room and went to bed shortly thereafter.

We all agreed that we were grateful that we got one more hike in before returning to Yokohama. Though the hike was strenuous for all of us, the weather was perfect, we saw a few gorgeous landscapes, and we were able to make one last campers' meal with the portable gas-fire stove. Today was the perfect way to end our adventurous expedition.

The trip was a physically demanding journey, and I'm not sure I've ever done anything quite like it. The cuisine and hotels levied much of the emotional discomfort as we dined and slept as royals most nights. I really felt like I was able to experience a lot of Japanese culture on this trip and see some of the most spectacular misty mountain views that I may ever see. Japan is a simply beautiful country with so many surprises that are worth the time to explore! I am incredibly grateful for having been able to embark on such a journey. The two guys I went with made for great company, as well, which makes any journey worth its while. An journey alone is never enjoyed as much as an adventure shared.

I've already considered my next hiking adventure since this trip; I plan to hike Fuji from 'Sea-to-Summit' in July! The hike will start at the beach early in the morning, with the goal of reaching the summit by sunrise. This will give me 24 hours to travel 47km and ascend 3.8km. I'm very excited for this next challenge and can't wait to tell you all how it goes!

I hope you enjoyed reading my 9-day journal of our trip! And thanks for reading this far!

Joe with our hospitable and generous hotel manager

We walked through a few small farms

On our last day's trail

Ross was happy to find a taste of home #butfirst

We saw a pretty large snake

A fountain by one of the many small shrines that we passed

Our last hotel

Another beautiful dinner!