Kumano Kodo day 3

 Wednesday, April 23, was day 3. Potentially a very long day, and the brochure describes different options for taking the bus part of the way. It was pouring rain, and the owners of the guest house kindly drove us to a point a few kilometers up the trail, at Kobiro-oji. From there we walked all the way to Hongu Taisha, about 12 km.

I spent the day hiking with the German couple from the guest house, Annie and Max. They were very nice and it was very pleasant to chat with them along the way. We slogged through the rain and the slippery, steep up and down slopes. 

An interesting thing was the numerous little red crabs that seemed to come out onto the trail because it was so wet.

Soon after our starting point, we were on the 'permanent detour' trail, since the original was destroyed by a typhoon in 2011. While we were on the detour, there were no distance markers or little shrines.

Once we were back on the original trail, there was the Yukawa-oji which felt quite remote.

After about 5 tough km, the trail went through a beautiful little village just before Inohana-oji, where there was a rest stop and a great view of the valley below toward Hongu Taisha.

Then we reached Hosshinmon-oji, where the trail toward Hongu Taisha was on road for a while, it was mostly downhill, and the rain had let up so we could take off our rain gear.

After a while the trail went off the road, but it wasn't rough and it was downhill, and soon we were at Hongu Taisha. 

This is the main shrine complex for the area and the focal point of the Kumano Kodo. There is the large shrine itself, and a long set of stairs down to the village lined by banners on each side.

We got there in good time to catch the earlier bus to Yunomine Onsen, where our accommodation was.

My accommodation was a traditional Japanese Ryokan, one of the oldest, and it was amazing.

I got cleaned up from the hike in the rain, spent time in the onsen inside the Ryokan, and had a traditional Japanese dinner served in my room.

By then it was dark, but I went outside to walk a bit. In the center of town, by the hotspring creek that flows through it, there is a pool of pure hotspring water that is so hot it can be used for cooking. 

There was a Japanese family there who were cooking a full dinner there: fish, vegetables and eggs. I chatted with them a bit, the kids wanted to talk to me, and they shared some of the food. Very cool experience.