Kumano Kodo 3: to the shrine

Wash away all your sins
Or stop completionism
There can only be one

The traditional aim of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage is to arrive at the grand Hongu Shrine. Walking there washes away your sins and allows you access to a better reincarnation. But today we fought our completionism and caught a bus for the first couple of kilometres; and so avoided a nasty mountain but failed on the sin-washing front. But, hey, we’ve already walked our way into one religion’s fast-track line, a second one seems greedy.

The first part of today’s walk was very atmospheric. Tall forest and mist. I realised that if there were no trees I’d be terrified on the path as it skirts a tall mountain, but the trees are like a natural safety fence.

The atmosphere was dented by a Chinese walker who was carrying bear bells. Every single step she took was accompanied by a high pitched ringing. No matter what we did we couldn’t lose her; I thought we were just unusually matched in speed until I realised she saw us as safety in numbers. For a while, I admit, I was seriously considering trading in my fast-track to heaven and pushing her off the mountain. We only lost her when we came across another Chinese walker and they bonded in bells.

After a lot of up and down hills, and a great many small shrines, there was some relief with a walk on the flat and even the first glimmer of Sun we’ve seen in days. Then we came to the spot where the day-trippers start walking and quietly started judging people based on how clean their shoes were.

The Hongu Shrine is impressive in a dark-wood way. It is a cross between Santiago de Compostela and St Peters, in that it is the destination for a pilgrimage and the centre of a religion. It was moved to its present site, about 150 years ago after its original site was flooded. The original site just down the road is marked by the World’s largest Tori gate. There’s a lovely stark simplicity to Japanese temples which makes them special even if not as richly awesome as similar Christian cathedrals. Jennifer even went through the bowing and clapping ritual to offer up a prayer – which more than she’s ever done in a Cathedral.

Finally it was on to our onsen for the night. Now I love onsen, the ritual of getting clean and then sitting in naturally heated mineral baths just appeals. And our onsen tonight has outdoor pools which was just beautiful. Hot water, gentle smell of sulfur, a forest, birds: idyllic. No photos to share of course, but take my very relaxed word for it that it was beautiful.