15 Days Kansai (hiking trip, rest shopping)

[kifo]

Just came back this evening. Tired out now and I will update the pictures over the next few days.

Here is a main outline of my trip

23/24 Dec Osaka
25 Dec Koyasan
26 Dec Hiking starts - Koyasan to Oomata
27 Dec Detour to Totsukawa
28 Dec Hiking continues - Imose to Totsukawa
29 Dec Totsukawa to Yunomine
30 Dec Yunomine to Koguchi
31 Dec Koguchi to Nachi Taisha - Hiking ended. Bus to Kii-Katsura
1 Jan - Train to Ise. Night at Matsusaka
2-6 Jan Osaka

Other than the detour on the 2nd day, the trip went smoothly. Will update again.

 

[kifo]

Thanks to many who frequents this forum, especially to especially to evilerniex who suggested booking through Tanabe City Tourist office which made this trip so much easier.

Feel free to ask anything about my trip.

23 Dec
It was a afternoon 2pm flight to Osaka on SQ. Arrival is by 9:20pm

I had no check-in luggage. So I was out in no time. Rapi:t is the fastest train in Osaka. And it is also relatively cheaper than JR Haruka. I took Haruka on the way back, the ticket (incl reservation seat) was Y2300.

Had a simple late supper before sleeping. Midosuji Hotel is a nice small hotel right in the shopping arcade area. They have natural hot spring water. I prefer these communal baths to using any hotel shower.

Ordered 2 sim cards from Japan Wireless. They worked flawlessly on my Nexus 5. I had some problems with them on my Nexus 7 (1st gen) though. These are LTE bmobile 1Gb simcards. No activations needed.

To continue later.

 

[kifo]

24 Dec

Here is a photo of the front of the hotel in the morning. It is in a narrow alley so it can be quite challenging to find if you do not know it is there. Thankfully I looked it up on Google maps streetview before leaving Singapore.

Went to Kuromon market to look for breakfast. Just a leisurely 15 mins walk, taking a detour through Dotonbori which was totally deserted in the morning. The market was just about started at 9am.

Had a special kaisendon which was about Y2300 I think. The ootoro was another Y1000.

Kuromon Market is a wet market. Nice to take a walk there in the morning.

 

[kifo]

Afternoon was spent shopping for hiking stuff. The kind tourist staff at Tanabe City Tourism emailed me just the night before informing that there will be heavy snow along the route. I went to shop for emergency stuff. (In hindsight, I didn't have to buy anything really important that I needed for the trip anyway. Those that I bought wasn't really that useful after all. But I got a nice pair of winter wear pants which was on sale.)

For anime fans, I saw plenty of anime merchandise even in convenience stores.

Here is a popular takoyaki place next to the Grand Kagetsu in Namba. They have this specialty sampler where you get 4 different flavours.

Since hotel was nearby, I brought it back to eat in my room. Together with soup in a can - Consomme.

Evening I went to the illumination at the Nakashima area. It was nothing much except for some nice food like this grilled beef tongue.

 

[kifo]

25 Dec Christmas

Time to go to Koyasan

Breakfast was at First Kitchen. Seems like there are a lot of First Kitchens around in Osaka city area.

Didnt wake up early enough, as you can it was 11am by the time I took my train from Namba.

There was a change involved at Hashimoto to a local train for Koyasan

When you reach Gokurakubashi, you need to get down to take the cable car. It is included in the ticket price if you bought a ticket to Koyasan station.

Finally I reached Koyasan station to take a bus to the town. The bus fare is Y210 and it is not included in the train ticket.

 

[kifo]

25 Dec at Koyasan

I am staying at Ichijo Temple. This is also known as a shukubo - temple lodging. However saying that, a temple accommodation is not definitely in the budget category. The Ichijo Temple is quite hightly rated on Rakuten and my room cost Y12,000 for 1 night.

First stop after dropping my luggage at the temple was to visit the Kongobuji Temple. It was just a short walk away.

The entrance fee of Y500 also includes a tea and snack inside their new reception hall.

It is not allowed to take photos of the beautiful drawings on the panels in the rooms so I only have photos of the scenery outside.

 

[kifo]

After leaving Kongobuji Temple, it was another short walk to the Garan area, where most of the main temples are situated. Thankfully the walk is only a short way away as it was freezing cold in Koyasan.

The most prominent building in the Garan is the Konpon Daito Pagoda.

There are also numerous interesting buildings to look at.

Leaving the Garan, it was a long walk to reach the Daimon. I could have taken a bus but I didn't want to stand there in the cold. The Daimon is really huge and impressive in the late afternoon sunlight.

 

[kifo]

Ichijou Temple.

Vegetarian cuisine in a temple lodging is know as shoujin ryori. Surprisingly enough, the temple also allows guest to order sake or beer. I decided to just stick to tea in keeping with the whole spirit of staying in a Buddhist temple.

The whole meal was vegetarian and the the taste was delicate and light. It was definitely an interesting experience.

After dinner I took a walk around the temple to look at the exquisite rooms which were opened to guests. It was too cold to wander outside so I did not venture out.

 

[kifo]

Shall try to complete the upload before I forget everything.

26 Dec Thursday - Day 1 of Hike

Next day have to wake up early at 5:30am to go for the morning service which starts at 6:30am. It was freezing. This thermometer is just along the corridor towards the prayer hall.

The service took an hour. No photography was allowed during the service so nothing to show here. It was very interesting for me to experience a zen buddhist morning prayer but I was secretly glad when it was over so that they start serving breakfast.

Right after breakfast, I had to quickly pack up and leave as I had to go to Okunoin before starting on my hike.

Okunoin was quite a bit of a walk from the centre of the town so I walked briskly for about an hour to reach there. The air was chilly.

Okunoin is where they interred Kobo Daishi, the Japanese monk who founded Shingon buddhism and Koyasan. It is a very interesting place to visit, especially if you are into Japan history.

Many family tombs are in the complex. You might recognise the names on some of these tombs.

The last tomb there is Oda Nobunaga's.

 

[kifo]

Main hall of Okunoin

We are not allowed to take photos at the main hall itself so I can't show anything here.

On my way out of the complex, I saw this most interesting tombstone.

After visiting Okunoin, it was almost 10am. I had to really rush for the reat of the day if I want to reach my destination today before dark.

This hike is called the Kohechi - (literally small side way). It is a mountain route from Koyasan to Kumano Taisha taken by pilgrims in the past. It is about 60km in length and it directly cuts across 3 mountain ranges before reaching the famous Shinto shrine. It is part of the entire network of old pilgrimage trails that surrounds the Kumano Hongu Taisha. There is the Nakahechi, Oohechi, Koheichi, and the Iseji. The Nakahechi is the most popular route taken by tourists and you can complete it in 3 days. The Oohechi is still under restoration so you cannot walk the entire route yet.

The Kohechi trail starts from the middle of the town.

First is a uphill walk.

Pretty soon, as the town is only so small, you are walking in a more natural surrounding.

Kohechi is part of the Kumano Kodo and therefore it is one of the only 2 pilgrimage trails that are listed under the UNESCO World Heritage sites. Every part of this trail is well maintained and well signposted. It is very hard to get lost unless you are not paying attention.

The first checkpoint for the 1st day is Ootaki which I planned to reach around midday.

 

[flame_angel]

Didn't have chance to see Koya-san or Kumano Kodo during my Wakayama trip. Became more facinated with the whole area and history after the trip. Thank you for the pictures and tips! Looking forward to the rest

 

[kifo]

Thanks flame angel. It was also my first trip to Wakayama area.

Many parts of the walk are along high ridges, thus affording great view of the surrounding countryside.

On leaving Koyasan, the trail heads for the nearest pass before decending into a valley and then climbs over another ridge before my destination on day 1.

The first Susuki pass at 900m is pretty nearby. Reached there before 1130.

Then it was steep descent into the valley below.

I saw an empty chestnut shell on my way down. I always wanted to know how to pick chestnut.

Reaching the bridge at the bottom. I was going very fast as I started late so I was quite happy that I got here within an hour. Still this was only about 4 km into the total distance for day 1.

 

[kifo]

Every time I descend into a valley, I knew I have to climb back the same height again so the next part was a killer slog uphill.

Reached Ootaki village which was the 1/3 point of the walk.

There was a nice map of the whole Koheichi in Ootaki.

Anyway it was more uphill after Ootaki.

The trail exited into the Koya-Ryujin Skyline Road. As the name implies, it is a great place for driving. But it was terrible for walking as the road was frozen with ice and terribly slippery to walk. Unfortunately, there are substantial portions of the Kohechi trail on public roads like this.

 

[kifo]

Here the Kohechi enters into Nara Prefecture. I would return back into Wakayama after Totsukawa Village.

Walking on a public road can be boring like this.

Leaving the skyline road and heading for the next pass before the descent into Oomata, which was the destination for day 1.

Here the snow cover is about ankle height.

Reaching the highest point of the day, which was about 1000m above sea level I think.

 

[kifo]

There are many parts of the trail that walks along forestry roads, which are probably a step more interesting than public roads I guess.

Especially when you have great views.

Leaving the forestry road for the descent into Oomata village. It was way past 2:30pm. I must reach the village before 4:30pm or it will be dark. The trail is just the small path on the bottom right corner.

The final few kilometers! At this intersection, I chose to go straight following the Kohechi path down to the village. I would later regret this decision. My accommodation is the minshuku and as the signboard indicates, I should have taken the winding public road down as it exits nearer to the minshuku.

Although I am going downhill, I am still pretty high up in the mountain.

Last bend before the main road.

 

[kifo]

Finally I reached the bottom!

But it was miserable, wet, cold and raining.

Now I am about 3km away from the minshuku. So I have to hike up the winding road in the rain. (On hindsight, I should have called up the minshuku from the public telephone at trail exit area and asked them to come fetch me.)

But the good thing was that with the clouds descending into the valley, it gave some tremendous views.

The minshuku was probably one of the only few places still opened in the last week of December. The owner and her son runs it and they were really friendly and nice. There is a onsen bath nearby and they would drive you there to clean up before dinner. It is also probably a good thing because the minshuku was really cold and I guess even the owners themselves used the onsen baths too. Dinner was hot **** and that was terrific after such a cold day.

 

[evilerniex]

wow.. the hike looks great!
was it difficult to hike in the snow? on average how many km u covered daily?

 

[kifo]

wow.. the hike looks great!
was it difficult to hike in the snow? on average how many km u covered daily?

The thickest snow during that time was just up to the knee level so it wasn't an issue. The hikes were 12-16km per day. I would perhaps recommend hiking in autumn for longer daylight hours though.

 

[cpuer]

Nice pictures and narrative

 

[kifo]

If anyone wants to find out more about the Kohechi route, you can take a look from the pdf map here.

http://www.vill.totsukawa.lg.jp/static/tizu/kouyasan_oomata_eng.pdf

At the minshuku, I met up with the owners of those footprints you saw in my earlier photos. They belonged to a young Taiwanese couple who also happened to book their Kohechi hiking trip on the same date as me. So for the next few days, we hiked together through the Kohechi trail. This was indeed a great coincidence as there was nobody else on the trail at this time of the year. In fact, we only met one other lone angmoh hiker who was roughing it out and camping in the open during our entire hike to Kumano Taisha.

Before I set out for Koyasan, one of the Tanabe City tourism office staff where I booked most of the accommodation emailed me and informed me that the Obako pass might be snowed in and unpassable. The minshuku owner's son also informed me about the snow conditions up in Obako pass and he feared it might be over knee height in places. He suggested that instead of crossing over the mountain, I could consider doing a side trip by bus to one of the famous sightseeing spots in the area, and then hike in to my destination the next day from there. As the old lady and her son sounded pretty worried during our conversation, the Taiwanese couple and I eventually decided to take up their suggestion.

27 Dec Friday

It snowed over last night.

The morning started very early to catch the only bus that comes to the minshuku at 7:15am. I almost overslept. I had to change 3 buses (more like minivans) to reach Tanise where we are going to visit the longest rope bridge in Japan.

It says limited to 20 people at one time. Since there is nobody there to monitor the traffic, who can say if it is being strictly followed?

297m long. 54m above the river below.

The wind in the middle of the bridge is crazy strong and I felt if I was going to be blown off the bridge. Looking at the lack of security wires and such, I am sure people have jumped off the bridge before. Just walking along the bridge normally will induce a swaying motion. I was really a bit scared although I pretended it was a piece of cake.

From the other side. Have to walk back of course. I wonder if insurance will pay for this if you fall off the bridge?

It was off season and I was lucky to find a single restaurant still operating for lunch and I managed to get something hot to eat.