Japan: Kii Hanto pilgrim hike

Jing, John and I did the Kii Hanto pilgrim hike program via World Expeditions, 6-11 August.
Could we recommend?  Yes, for a one-off.  Fun to do once, but we wouldn't want to repeat.  Funny thing is just how little there is for the hikers, in terms of coffee shops (none), tea houses (abandoned), places to buy drinks (nope).  Our guide Alena (ex East German, ten years in Japan) said one day that there was a place that served tea and boiled eggs (nothing else...) and that it might be open.  It wasn't.  Weird.....  If it were China, there'd be noodle and tea houses at every logical stop.  And if you trek in the Himalayas, ditto.  Still, the countryside is lovely, when there's not a typhoon brewing, that is....
I forgot: Japan in vending-machine-crazy.  They are everywhere, always work and serve you anything form drinks, to umbrellas, beers and cigarettes.  On the trails, though -- and understandably -- there aren't many.  The few we came across, we pounced on, and drained them of their drinks.... cool, cool.... so lovely, we'd stand by them pouring in Yen and pouring down energy drinks...

Yunomine town in Kumano. Yoshinoya Ryokan (Inn) on the left

Forests as far as the eye can see

John, Jing and our guide, Alena

Abandoned tea and sake house on a pilgrim trail.  Empty sake bottles under the trees.
There were lots of abandoned Tea houses, and even abandoned villages,
speaking to the shift to cities and the fewer pilgrims.

A private plantation growing tea (Camelia Sinensis).  Each household in Japan's
country grows its own rice, veges, tea.  This is in the village that our guide,
Alena, has lived in for the last four years.

Honggu shrine, at the end of the first day's walk.

Back at Kumano, the boiling hot Onsen in the middle.
I burnt my fingers trying to get the eggs out.

You can boil eggs here in this super hot Onsen.  John checks the eggs.
We then ate them, with beers, at a next-door temple, run by the local
monk.  Fun.

Nachisan.  Waterfall in background

Nachisan.  The goddess Guan Ying (from China)

"The French": they take off before us, we overtake them,
and never see them again, even after waiting 2 hours
for a bus at the end of the 16 km walk.... It was through
a lot of gloomy forests, full of ghosts, Alena tells us,
so we thought they'd added to the ghost population.
"The French" and we, were the only people on the whole
of this 5-hour walk.

Nachisan Waterfall.  Just before the 16km walk
to Koguchi ("small mouth").

J and P at Nachisan

A shrine on the trail

Another shrine.  They dot the trails.

And yet another shrine

Little spring water sources...Japanese use them to wash hands.  I drink

On the pilgrim trail.  This one is called an "ascetic"
trail. Rather tougher than normal trails, though this
bit is pretty innocuous.  Parts of it were quite tough.

Flooded out on the  last day. The night before, that raging torrent was a trickle
of a stream.  The water was threatening the Ryokan, and they were about
to evacuate us, but we decided to leave for Osaka. We were driven out
by typhoon Halong, which closed roads and stopped trains.  We just made
it out in time on the bus, but then had a 3-hour taxi ride to Osaka, as the
trains had been stopped by the typhoon...

Safely in Osaka, after 3-hour taxi ride from Kii Tanabe.
An Asahi draft beer helps soothe

We stayed in the new and rather lovely Marriot, which is on the top
floors of the tallest building in Osaka.  Fabulous views, and five
floors of food hall...  This is a heated stone bowl.  Cool...

Mornington Peninsula Sisters' Sojourn

Enjoying a weekend away at a coast house on the mornington peninsula, hail and gale force winds outside!
X A and J