The next day sees us taking a bus from Yunomine Onsen to the start of our trail at Ukegawa.
It’s easy, just pull a ticket stub when you enter through the back door.
When you leave, just pay the amount shown matching your ticket stub number.
Start of trail
There are some old teahouse remains… since teahouses were constructed using wood, there aren’t any traces left except for flat clearings on the side of the hill.
This part of Kumano Kodo, called the Kogumotori-goe and the Ogumotori-goe aren’t as well travelled as the route to Hongu.
Hence route is less well maintained, but still serviceable.
There are some nice views of the surrounding mountains.
There are some “poem monuments” about but, we can’t read japanese.
There were some strange (to us) looking trees/plants too.
The hike from Ukegawa to Koguchi is relatively short, so we reached our accommodation early in the afternoon. A note of warning though, there aren’t any restaurants here and we had to get some bread and pears for lunch at a shop.
Koguchi Shizen-no-Le is an accommodation converted from a school house and is charming in its own right.
The long corridor really invokes the classroom feel.
Still, food’s good. Dinner’s charming as well as we got to eat in a school canteen. The novelty of it!
The next day saw us walking from Koguchi to Nachi and the first bad omen was this sign informing us of a landslide and a detour to the first landmark, Waroda Rock.
It rained on and off that day and we were constantly in our raincoats. This route had more moss covering than previous trails and the going is slippery on the rocky stairs.
There’s a part of the trail that’s quite tough as it ascends continuously for 2 hours. However it should be no problem to hikers who’d done mountains.
This part of the trail is dark and misty, not sure it’s a characteristic of being nearer to the ocean or that typhoon Talas was approaching. Yes, we did hike 2 days before typhoon Talas was projected to hit our area! Talk about timing.
Lots of slippery moss covered rocks. The mist makes everything looks so eerie and mystical… We faced strong winds and light rain for the rest of the day.
At last we reach Kumano Nachi Taisha. Of the 3 Kumano Sanzan (3 shrines), we just missed out on the Kumano Hatayama Taisha due to tight schedule.
We also visited Nachi-no-Otaki falls, highest waterfall in Japan. Just amazing.
To ease our travel aches, we stayed at the Hotel Nakanoshima. Nope, not a Ryokan, but a full blown hotel, which in our opinion was the best accommodation ever! It’s located at an island in the bay of Kii-Katsuura, ocean facing views, open air onsen, and finally, our very own private bathrooms. A real luxury in Japan where public baths are common.
Food is delicious.
And Kumano Beef… which we thinks is the local “Kobe beef”. Melts like butter in our mouths.
The hotel is super new, which apparently is different from the one written in the Lonely Planet Guide. Thank goodness because the review for that hotel wasn’t good. So anyone interested should look up the name of this hotel instead.
Hey, an Haagen-Daaz ice-cream vending machine in the hotel, which gives some idea as to the Hotel’s classiness.
There’s an outdoor onsen footbath as well, will the wonders never cease?
Great views of rock formations off the island of Hotel Nakanoshima.
The breakfast dining area. Classy.
Kii-Katsuura harbour. Idyllic. The next day we had to leave for Kyoto but it was lucky that we did cause the next day saw high waves battering the Wakayama prefecture, disrupting train services. We could have been trapped by Typhoon Talas if we stayed longer!
And for those who’d watched the cove, we passed the town!
We had a bit of a delay when touching down at the Floating Kansai International Airport, which meant the well laid plan done by our agent (http://www.insidejapantours.com/) suffered a hiccup. The Japanese and their buses and trains really are punctual to the dot but unfortunately China Eastern Airlines did not cooperate. My guess is that it will be the last time wifey book them for flights.
LUCKILY, the tourist counter at Kansai Airport helped us to call the owner of our first Ryokan (guest house) that we were staying at to arrange to pick us up from another bus stop or else we would have been really stranded. It was also the last time that we have a good English conversation with a Japanese as most of them aren’t any good at it.
However, what they lack in English, they made up for it in hospitality.
The owner of Ryokan Tsukinoya at Chikatsuyu were our saviour as he graciously pick us up from a bus stop 10 minutes away late at night, from the LAST bus. Charming little place.
day time view of Chikatsuyu, the quiet little place we were staying at.
the corridors of Ryokan Tsukinoya
The owners fed us like kings and queens, although I was told that it was a typical Japanese full course meal. I told my wife I was 120% full and felt bad about not finishing the gohan (rice).
The owner flitted in and out of the dining room, enquiring about our plans and gave some advice on the hiking ahead. We were talking like Chicken to Duck but thankfully the Japanese Phrasebook (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Japan-Original-Point-Speak-Book/dp/4795818436) we borrowed helped us some in the communication. The owner’s wife also came in at one point and gave us some paper to write our prayers and wishes for her to hang on a tree on the next festival. Really warm and caring couple, until one point me and my wife felt like we were their adopted children.
Room’s typical Japanese and there’s aircond for the warm season.
The next day saw the owner taking us on a car trip to the beginning of the hiking trail which was totally generous and sporting of him! It wasn’t in his need to do so but he did it anyway, making sure we visit the Gyuba-doji statue.
Nonaka-no-Shimizu spring. I think it was a traditional holy water ablution place but we didn’t quite understood what the Ryokan owner wanted us to do from his frantic gestures and pointing. 
Tsugizakura-oji. With it’s impressive Torii gate and hige trees, truly a magical place.
And apparently a tree grafted onto another tree here. Glad the owner took us to see these places before he drop us off at Kobiro-Oji to start walking.
Right the trail proper, there are markers every 500m to show our progress, and also to convince us we are still on the trail. We did not start from the actual start which apparently goes all the way back to Takijiri-Oji.
Proper direction and signage means zero chance of getting lost. Furthermore, we came prepared with printed out route maps, full colour (get it here: http://www.tb-kumano.jp/en/kumano-kodo/nakahechi.html)
All interesting stops came with information signs with English translations.
For those hardcore hikers, there are various “stamps” located along the route which you can mark on your paper to show that you have passed the spot!
The connifer forest of Japan differs from our Malaysian tropical rainforest, trees are tall and straight. And the branches some how point in a single direction.
There are small shrines along the route, which really reminds us that this IS a pilgrimmage route!
Some statues are just on the ground.
Others are wrapped carefully because apparently, Kamis need warmth too!
A fellow lizard traveller…
Our traditional Bento lunch, it really is just rice balls, but flavoured.
Finally we reached… Kumano Hongu Taisha, the focus of the pilgrimmage trail we were on. Apparently Kumano Kodo was named a World Heritage Area partly because the Kumano Gods were historically tolerant of all genders and faiths!
Our present to ourselves for completing day 1 hike: Macha Ice-Cream! Tasty.
Our lodging for the night: Ryokan Azumaya, which according to our Ryokan Tsukinoya owner is:”number one!”
Number one in Yunomine Onsen area, that is. One of the older hot spring places.
Room’s good
Food’s good. And there’s all sort of Onsen specials: Onsen egg, Onsen tea, Onsen rice, etc.
And no kidding, eggs being boiled in public.
There’s a World Heritage wooden bathhouse here but… we’ll just bath in the Ryokan’s open air hot spring pool, thank you. We aren’t Hot Spring enthusiast.
We spend the next day exploring Hongu and an interesting tidbit: Kumano Kodo is like the Rising sun Pilgrimmage trail and there is a “Setting sun” Pilgrimmage trail in Spain called: The St. James Way.
I think it’s about 800 kilometres long so don’t think we’ll be attempting it…
end of Part one.
Ok, went back to Gunung Datuk for hiking again, this time with wife’s colleagues. There were nine of us. Almost got lost without bro to show the route so here’s a recap on how to reach there:
1. Get off Pedas/Linggi Toll from the North-South Expressway.
2. Turn left after the Toll and follow the directions to Rembau/Tampin. (In detail, this means at the rounabout, take the 3 o’clock turn, then at next traffic light turn right, lastly go straight till the signboard for the Hutan Lipur Gunung Dato’ turns up. In case of getting lost, just keep following the signs to Rembau/Tampin)
3. Go early to reach there at 8am so as to beat the others to a parking spot. (Had a sidang warga gunung that day so had to park slightly away)
4. Register and pay RM3 for climbing.
5. Toilet / shower is free so pack up towel and clean clothes to wash away those hiking sweats.
6. We got to the top in two hours, spent thirty minutes admiring the view and another hour coming down. (I consider our group to be ‘quite’ fit so scale your hiking duration estimate accordingly.)
Curiously, I find this 2nd time hiking Gunung Datuk to be easier than the first time and is quite pleasant. I am thinking about the recent hike up Gunung Apek in Cheras and found that one tougher.
This time hiking Gunung Datuk is windier, there’s a constant wind whistling sound through the forest. The wind at the top is strong enough to blow untucked shirts up, revealling bare chest. You have been warned!
We took lunch at the Seremban city Pasar, eating the famous Beef Noodles. Very tasty, just locate the stall at the first floor of the pasar, which is opposite Maybank on the Main Road.
Photos:
Hiking motion in blur
Backpack full of water
Some cute note about a hiking victim busting leg here
ants trooping across the path
ignoring the camera
we're climbing!
obligatory photo shoot
humungus rocks signalling top of mountain
ladies in red
ladies in red close up
ladies
ladies + thorn
ladies + thorn II
we've reached the top... of the camping grounds
we're here
last leg of climb on ladders
more huge rocks exposed on mountain top
crazy strong wind blowing hair
last leg rock climbing
metal ladders securing by rope to rock
clear view
slightly cloudy and mostly windy day
more ladders to climb
squeezing between rocks
a view of the almost-top from the toppest-most
jungles behind, top rocks exposed
helping hand
ultimate-top view
view of vast expense of land beneath gunung dato/datuk
Next Page »
