Kumano Kodo 1: short and wet

Water weeps from the air
Sweat drip, drips from pilgrim bodies
Hiking in the rain

The Kumano Kodo, or KK, is a pilgrimage trail that dates from the 10th Century. In contrast to the Nakasendo Trail we walked when last time we were in Japan – which was a post-trail designed for speed – the KK is all about spiritual moments and challenges.

We took a train from Osaka down to the South East, and then a bus up into the mountains. We are far from the only people walking the trail – the bus was filled with pilgrims. When the bus pulled up there was a flurry of activity as we all pulled on rain coats and trousers before setting off up the trail in the rain.

It soon became apparent that we were faced with a spiritual choice thanks to the soup-like humidity. On the one hand we could protect ourselves from the rain and end up soaked in sweat, or we could remove the rain gear and just get wet. We, and everyone else, opted for the just-get-wet approach.

So it was an increasingly bedraggled trail of pilgrims that made its was up the, quite steep, hill. Today we walked less than 5km but we went up about 390m in the first kilometer. And it was all in the rain.

There were some nice views and we visited our first shrine, but we were pleased to arrive at our ryokan for the night. One of the great things about staying in a ryokan is that they provide you with a yakuta to wear, so we could leave our wet clothes to dry and sit comfortably looking very Japanese.

Dinner was an amazing range of perfect Japanese food. (Interrupted by the process of sending Skye ice cream to console her after she narrowly lost the election for ANU Student Union President – which, by the way, proves we live in the future where I can sit in a tiny Japanese village and have ice cream delivered in Canberra).