Kumano Kodo Part 2 | Shingu and Nachi | Not quite a wash out!

Kumano Kodo Part 2 | Shingu and Nachi | Not quite a wash out!

[Music] We are James and Stuart and we have been walking the Kamano Codo for the last 2 days from Tekkiri to Hongu. [Music] Having spent the night at Kauen, we had intended to continue walking the trail to Kaguchi. But concerns about the weather means we will catch the bus that runs beside the Kamano Gawa River to see the Kamano shrines in Shingu. So we’re back at breakfast buffet breakfast here at Kawa on the river. There’s the river during the day. A lovely view. And the rain is coming down. Only left the door 5 minutes ago and it’s coming down. So today is probably going to be a bit of a wash out. We’re going to go to Shingu. See if we can see the temple there and then onto Nachi and find the three tier of Pagod and the waterfall and the temple there. So this is Kawa onen. Kawa onen where we spent the night in that taller hotel. The first hotel there about seven stories high. We’re on level three. So this is the rest of Kawai onen. So that’s our hotel, Kawawaia Hotel. The hotel conveniently offers a free shuttle back to the bus stop in Hongu. Oh, did I did I wake you up too early? You got me out of bed too early. I’m sleeping very well after these long hikes. Yeah, I slept pretty well last night. So, catching bus 91 to Shingu station. Expectedly while in transit, the next stop is UK Gawa. You can take a boat ride down the Kanogawa River, but we hadn’t organized it, and we felt the weather was better for bus travel than boat travel. [Music] In Shingu, there are three shrines that are part of the Kamano Trail. The Kano Hayatame Tisha, Kamakura Ginger, and Isuka Ginger. We will also visit the Shinju Castle ruins. [Music] So, here we are at the shrine in the shrine in Shingu. It was a good bus ride from Honu, wasn’t it? Yeah, look, it uh the bus traveled uh alongside a really wide river with lots of cobblestones and uh it looked very dramatic. About an hour, I think it was about an hour trip. Uh but it certainly beats a 2-day 20 8 km hike over the mountains. Obviously, there’s a reason you would do that, but uh if you can’t can’t face it, uh take the bus to Shingu and visit the shrines here. So, we’re going to do that today. The weather’s a bit iffy. It’s very hot, but also frequent showers. [Music] It’s the Hayatama, the Hayatama Taiishi branch drive. [Music] And we make our way to another shrine in Shingu. What does the sign say? What does it say? Warning, warning, warning. We’ve done pretty well on the uh wildlife front. We haven’t been bitten or eaten by anything. We met people yesterday who had leeches on the trail on the same trail we been on. Had leeches on their ankles, but so far we’ve escaped any leeches or snakes. We haven’t even had a mosquito bite. No mosquito bites. All we’ve seen is giant frogs. Frogs and crabs. Giant frogs the sizes of tennis balls and lots of crabs. We didn’t take any photos of them because uh it was a rainy day, which is why there were frogs. But I had my cameras all wrapped up in Ziploc bags. Still adding stamps to our stamp book. Another three stamps to be had here in Shingoo. [Music] Okay. Well, we haven’t escaped the climbing today. Some serious steps to climb to get to this shrine and the lookout point. Oh, halfway there. And yet more steps. Oh, someone needs a rest. Ah. That’s hot and difficult. That is hot and steamy. And the the steps are slippery cuz it’s been raining. And that is the panoramic view of Shingu in the coast. [Music] And after a walk through the BBS of Shingu, we find hidden away here the Assuka shrine. The third shrine of Shingu that we’re going to visit. What do you think they say? Well, I I peace on Earth. I think they’re prayer flags. I think more likely that than um election slogans or the real thing, Coca-Cola. Getting that door to gate in mind. There we go. We haven’t been very good at cleansing ourself before each shrine visit, but there is the option. So, here we are at shrine number three or shine number three in Shingu where we think we can get another stamp in our book. Is that it? Free stamp. I wonder. All right, we’re at the Shingu Castle Ruins. Let’s see what this has in store for us. More stairs. More stairs. [Music] I imagine they built this castle here for the defensive positioning and the cool breeze. That’s the valley we came down in the bus. Looks like there’s interesting flood control over there. I did see a bit of hydro power on the way. So that is shingu. I think we’ve done shingu now. We have gee hot and steamy day but really interesting. It’s uh see we’ve done it by it’s 10 to two and I don’t think we’ve got enough time to get down to nut and do it justice. We’ll try and do it in the next day or two weather permitting. Well, we’ll do it regardless of the weather. Even if it’s pouring with rain, we’ll get down to see the pigod or the 3T pigota and the waterfall at Nachi, which is part of Kimono Cotto. [Music] Okay, made it to Shingu station. Okay, so we’re on the train at Shingu on our way to Kikatsura where our hotel is for the next two nights. Good day in Shingu. Didn’t really rain on us, but if you look at the weather, it’s sitting over there on the hill. So, I imagine if we’ stayed uh around the Hong Kong area and kept walking, it would have been much wetter. So, there you go. [Music] [Music] We had booked ourselves into the Kamoi Hotel in Katsura for two nights. It’s an older style hotel and spa that has been recently refurbished. [Music] Okay, so this is our room tonight. And to be honest, I thought I’d ordered a western room. In fact, I did order a western room, but they claimed that I changed it. But I didn’t change it. The travel agent must have changed it. Kimano travel. But this looks pretty exciting to be to be fair. They told us to fold out our own bedding so no one comes to do it for us. I have to say it does look quite thick. It looks quite comfortable. It’s not just a a grass mat. [Music] It’s like a James Bond movie from the ‘ 60s. Dr. No. And then we also have our own pansson or our own bath out here. And there it is. So, it’s our own hot tub by the seat. Stuart’s gingerely finding his way around. Well, I’m thinking I’m going to have to do an awful lot of yoga uh before I can sit at our table. You will. You haven’t been able to sit. We haven’t been to a Japanese restaurant with those sorts of seats ever because you’ve always said I can’t sit like that. So, it’s hopefully your your back the last 25 years. Yes, I know. Well, if your back’s improved enough, so you sit here, we it opens up a whole new world of Japanese dining for us. Well, here I am in full Yakuta node. Very comfortable with this, too. [Music] Let’s see if he keeps his legs together when he sits down in his. What does a gentleman wear under his yaka? Yakarta. Whatever he chooses. The drink spa is excellent. Our [Music] booking included dinner and breakfast, and both meals proved to be quite an experience. [Music] We got the sushimi. Absolutely superb sushi. [Music] toono cyto style pickles with green shisu and small slices of eggplant pickled in mustard. [Music] So this is described as deep fried Japanese hair tail with herbs. I like the vegetable. So this is chilled steamed egg custard with corn. And then they’ve brought over the Kamano beef loin and lean meat which is to be lightly grilled. And he has lit. This is our grill. There we go. Or we’ve got a grill each actually. Gr each. [Music] So this is chicken rice cooked in a pot with Japanese pepper and young ginger. So that was cooking away in this pot over here. And I guess you have it as a side the meat which is almost done. We’ve just received a clear soup with green seaweed in there somewhere. How’s your chicken rice? Nice. Very nice. Very good. Chicken rice. So that is jelly. And then to bed. We awoke to another rainy day, so headed back to the restaurant for a full Japanese breakfast. Orange juice, some tuna, mun tuna, breakfast. [Music] All right, it is a Thursday. It’s our fourth day on the Kimano Codo. Um, and it’s a bit of a wash out. We’ve had 70 mil of rain uh since midnight apparently. Uh but we’re hoping the rain lightens off in an hour or so so we can get up and see the uh the last shrine, the Nashi shrine. But we’re enjoying some of the coffee shops of Katsura. They really are quite cute. Very cute. We just had had a lovely sandwich and cocoa that a little old lady made us and it was only 1,500 yen for the two of us. So um she’s very charming. It’s very nice. A very strange place. There’s hardly anybody here. It really really does feel like an an aging dying society. A bit sad to travel a lot. Yeah. Well, no, it is aging. It’s definitely an aging society. All the youngsters got all the youngsters moved to the city. Yeah. [Applause] [Music] What a happy little boy. There we go. There we go. So, this is the start of the Diamond Zaka slope and we’re back on the Kimono Cotto. We’re glad we waited. So, it’s about 2:00 p.m., but we waited and the rain has cleared and we can climb the slope up to the shrines at the top. 800y old trees almost as old as us. I think I’ve got more rings. More growth rings around the middle. Definitely more growth rings. Particularly after that chocolate cake we just added in Katsura. After climb up the hill, we reach Kamano Nachi Tasha. Planning how to attack the shrines plus the waterfall. Oo, light rain just starting again. [Music] It is really steamy, wet and steamy. The rain’s coming down again. We’ve made our way to the top of the shrine. I can hear the waterfall. We saw the waterfall on the way up. We’ll go over and have a look at the waterfall. We’ve got a couple of stamps to collect to make the trip worthwhile. Well, it’s not to make the trip. To complete the trip, we need to get the stamps. Hardly anybody here. That’s the big advantage of um Hardly anybody here. That’s the big advantage of doing it at this time of year, I think. And paradoxically, there are some beautiful views. You can see the mountains, but the the clouds kind of create these vistas with kind of misty tendrils of cloud through the through the uh through the It looks It looks really quite beautiful. Yeah. [Music] So, what are you barbecuing there, Stew? Uh, nice pork chops. Nice pork chops. It’s not It’s very aromatic, isn’t it? It’s good. Cedar wood. Cedar wood. I see. I’d quite like to buy a stick but not throw it on the fire. I don’t think burning them is compulsory. Stuart will now apply our stance here. I do feel we’re cheating somewhat having arrived by bus. But it does complete our kimono kudo collection of stamps. 17 stamps so far. [Music] And there the track emerges from the forest. Heat [Music] up here. Heat up here. So there you go. It’s the highest waterfall of Japan. Not necessarily the largest, but the highest. Now, I don’t know if these are donated sticks by people at the end people at the end of their hike seem to have just left their sticks here. They don’t No, it makes a whole lot of sense. They walk the whole trail and now they So, don’t I don’t need my bamboo pole. Um, but I have to say my 500 yen umbrella really did the job cuz it multitaskked. It multitaskked as a walking pole as well as an umbrella. There it is around the other. Okay, after 4 days, we feel that our Kimano Cotto pilgrimage has come to a close here at the waterfall. It’s been a great 3 or 4 days. Didn’t quite get to do everything we planned to do. This morning was a wash out, so we only got started at about half 1 today. So, had we had the full day, the plan was to come here and then backtrack up the the trail to the basically the next stamping point, the next OG, which is about a a 2 km walk in and an 800 m rise. It would have been a real challenge, but but we still saw the amazing temples and the great waterfall that sits at the very end of the trail. We did, and we got we got an extra three stamps in our book, so that made it worthwhile. But uh it’s been an amazing four days. Yeah, it has. Yeah, it has. So now we’re we’re standing at the bus stop here at the waterfalls that will take us back to Katsura, back to our hotel where we can relax in the Onson tonight. Uh enjoy another meal. Uh which I must say we find a little daunting. Last night’s meal was so overwhelming, so elaborate and beautiful. Um but in some ways a bit challenging as well. It’s it’s it’s very large. Yeah, very large and very tasty. But wow. Yeah, but we’ll enjoy that and then tomorrow morning we’ll get the train uh to Nagoya and then the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We have a night in Tokyo and then back to Australia uh the next day on Saturday. So, thank you for watching. Please like and subscribe. Please comment or ask any questions you might have about hiking the Kimono Cotto um as a mature gentleman carrying a bit of extra weight. I guess we are mature now. Oh, I’m definitely mature. Well, I I turned over 60 just a couple of weeks ago. So, um I’m I’m feeling us too. 60 is the new 50. 60 is the new 50. So, uh you got to get these sorts of things in now in the next um few years while the knees are still working adequately to handle some of these sorts of trails, these sorts of challenges. So, if you’ve made it this far in the video, thank you very much for uh for watching. Cheerio. Bye-bye. [Music]

We have been walking the Kumano Kodo in July – the hottest, most humid and wet month of the year!
You can see our hike from Takijiri to Chikatsuyu to Hongu here:https://youtu.be/m0R671J49dM

In this video we abort our plan to continue walking to Koguchi because of the weather and instead catch the bus to Shingu to see three shrines. We then continue on to Katsuura Nachi to see the shrines and waterfall there.

00:00 Kawayu Onsen
02:30 Shingu
08:27 Kameno Hotel Nachi Katsuura
12:41 Katsuura Cafes
13:52 Daimon-zaka
14:39 Kumano Nachi Taisha

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