For the week of Monday, April 21 to Saturday, April 26, I made all the bookings for accommodations and luggage transfers, to do the 5 days of hiking of the Kumano Kodo. It is in the Kii peninsula south of Osaka. The hike has a history as a pilgrimage going back 1000 years, and it was done by emperors.
It is a World Heritage Site and an official pilgrimage. At the information center you pick up a little book, and at every little shrine along way, you get a stamp. Half of the book is for the Kumano Kodo, the other half is for the Camino pilgrimage in Spain. If you do both, you can get some kind of certificate.
On the first day I got up at 5 am in Kyoto to take the train to Osaka, transfer in the huge Osaka station to the train to Kii-Tanabe, meet the person to take my luggage, then get the bus to Takijiri. The timing of all these things had to work out, so I was a bit stressed. However everything went ok.
I requested a guide for the first day, and she met me at the bus stop in Takijiri. Her name was Mitsuyo, and she explained a lot of the history as we went along. After a brief stop at the information center, we stopped at the first shrine and then started hiking up the steep trail.
The first day of the hike goes to small hamlet in the mountains called Takahara. It was only about 4 km, but very steep. Great views at the top.
Just inside Takahara there I very old little shrine called Kumano jinja.
Finally after another steep climb we arrived at the guest house. Very nice little place with an amazing view from my room.
And the meal was amazing.
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