Well part of this trip was to head south from Osaka and complete some of the Kumano Kodo hiking/pilgrim route. There are a number of routes that cross the Kii peninsula, the part of the route I would be walking is the Nakahechi route. I took the train down to Tanabe and stayed the night, before catching a local bus out of Tanabe the next morning to my starting point of the hike.

I did about 15km the first day, from my starting point of Takijiri along to the village of Chikatsuyu. Unfortunately as I had only arranged this hiking part of my trip the month or so before, it was too late to use the local accommodation booking service. There is a local Japanese website that helps to assist foreigners booking with local guesthouses along the route. However as it has become more popular over the last few years it can take a month to hear back, before knowing if any of the local homestays could be booked. That meant I just had to go with the very limited selection of accomodation availble on the more usual online booking websites.

So I had to reach Chikatsuyu in the afternoon to catch a local bus up towards Hongucho Hongo to reach my guesthouse. It was a little bit outside this village, and rather than double back the next day I just completed a shorter section to a famous point on the pilgrim route, the Kumano Hongu Taisha shrine.

This was the view on the approach, not the giant wooden gate in the distance…

I took in the shrine and the good local information centre/museum for the history of these pilgrim routes. Here is that giant wooden gate or archway up close as you reach the village.

It is a enjoyable and picturesque hike in parts, but note that quite abit of the route is walking through forest, so there was not as many views out over the countryside as I would of hoped for.

I moved slightly further up the road and stayed in a more tradional Japanese style hotel room, this felt abit retro but was great fun. There were also hot springs in the river with the hotel next to the river.
I would recommend the Kumano Kodo hiking route to anyone, however would stress some forward planning to utilise the local accommodation booking service could make for a more authentic trip.