A Day Off (sort of....)

September 1, 2023 - from the itinerary: Day 18 | Hongu Taisha (01.09.2023)

Today you can relax from the busy previous day. From Yunomine Onsen you can take a steep but delightful walk to Hongu Taisha, one of the three great shrines of Kumano. On the other side of the shrine is the Kumano Hongu Heritage Centre, which has a variety of exhibitions, including some with English translations. Not far away is also the Oyunohara, the largest torii in the world at 34 meters high, symbolizing the separation between the secular and spiritual worlds. In the area, you will also find several restaurants with delicious food. Walking time: 1–2 hours (2 km) each way

Friday 9/1 - a day off!

I had an amazing breakfast at 8am - really late for me.

I decided to walk over to the Honshu Taisha from here as my short walk day - about 2 miles and 600 feet elevation.

Today I got only one stamp: for the Yunomine-Oji which was along the route. This Oji and the hot spring is said to have many healing properties and is an integral part of the pilgrimage route.

The day was hot and humid and within 15 minutes of starting my climb I had sweat through everything I had on. The trail was very pretty and I could imagine pilgrims 1000 years ago hiking this same trail.

There were a number of frogs and fungi along the way

Coming down I could see the sacred river Kumano-gawa and the route took me right by the huge Torii gate which separated the real world from the spirit world. The tripod moved at the last minute on one of the shots below....Can you tell which one?

A farmer took this last picture of me - he was harvesting wheat in the field where I was walking. Below is his thresher.

I had a nice break for an ice coffee before climbing the stone steps up to the Hongu Taisha to see if there was anything I missed from yesterday (there wasn’t).

Here's a local phone booth which reminds me of the ones in the UK

I stopped in for a short lunch of tempura before catching the bus back to Yunomine Onsen.

This time I actually tried to UNESCO version which was across the street from my hotel and which is seen from my hotel room.

For 800 yen (about $8) you have 30 minutes of a private session in the bath. It’s a small bath house and a very small opening/pool. The water in the pool is very hot, so there are two spigots of cold water. You open up the spigots and use the mixing tool to bring the water temperature down to something you can stand. I didn’t see the mixing tool until I read about it later, so I sat in the hot water and poured cold water over my head, which also worked. I couldn't take photos inside, but have the brochures (hard to see the pictures, I'm sure)

I spent the afternoon at leisure until tea time (matcha and mochi) and dinner time at 6pm.

Another feast, including these fish heads which I was supposed to “chew chew” (I thought “ew ew”). I won’t be losing much weight on this trip - lucky thing I’m doing so much exercise each day.