Day 24 – Kumano Kodo

Today we start hiking the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage trail.

Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage

We will jump onto the trail right outside the front door of the inn.

The trail should be well traveled. It goes through villages along the way. It does not look to have a lot of elevation change.

The day is partially cloudy and a little cooler. We feel blessed.

Let’s go have an adventure!

Our host saw us off with a hearty “Buen Camino”. What a guy.

Hiking

We are at this moment on the bank of beautiful stream cooling off from our wonderful morning hike.

We have a mile and a half to get to where we are staying tonight and it is only 2:00 so we have some time “to chill”. We’ll stop at a cafe to eat and have a drink before pressing on.

Backpacking in Japan is even better than I imagined it would be.

We’ve made it to our “inn” for the evening.

It is the most humble of our stays (and the cheapest), but it’s charming.

I’m writing from the roof-top deck.

I’ll try to write about our day on the trail later tonight. We’re about to have dinner, I’m exhausted and two beers in but I’ll see what I can do.

I think the hike will be described well in pictures:

There is a “passport” stamp system for the Kumano Kodo but it is in disrepair
I often find blur jay feathers while I’m hiking
Owen would have liked to spend all day here
broken pottery is common to find on the trail