Kumano Kodo · 5 Days

Kumano Kodo, arriving on foot

Three well-measured hours of trail each day, your luggage sent ahead. You arrive carrying nothing but yourself.

Of these ten journeys, this is the only one in which walking plays the lead. Arranged properly, walking is more luxurious than any vehicle.

The skeleton

  • Day 1 — Arrive in Kii-Tanabe; a short warm-up stretch; a hot-spring guesthouse
  • Days 2–4 — Three curated hours of trail per day (the steepest sections avoided), luggage driven ahead, lunch from a mountain teahouse
  • Day 5 — Walk into Kumano Hongu Taisha — an ending with the weight of a ceremony — then the river onsen

House rules of this journey

No hurrying; a car comes whenever the walking stops being pleasant. Rain has its B-side (onsen and the pilgrimage museum). Phones, ideally, evenings only.

This is the skeleton of a journey that happened exactly once. Yours will begin from a blank page.

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Shall we draw yours?

Tell us roughly where you want to go, and what you would rather avoid. That is where the line begins.

Begin my journey