Nara

 Train ride from Kii Katsura to Nara saw us travel along the coast with many small towns on the way. Coast line reminded us of Kaikoura in some ways.

Not sure but could be oyster or fish farms

A solitary chap fishing off the rocks

We arrived in Nara  station easy walk to our accommodation...not able to check in half an hour early so left the packs and headed off to find a coffee.  The main thorough fare was full of tourists and we stumbled into a "cafe" complete with robot delivering food orders. Sadly our coffee was ghastly but not unexpected. Do not seem to use barista machines here, just automated press a button for black or latte.

Nara is famous for its 660ha park packed with temples, shrines and gardens.  The age of these dating back to the 8th century. Sika deer are numerous and tame being messengers from Shinto gods it is believed.

90% of Japanese wear masks as a cultural norm everywhere and one is constantly washing hands but no one seems to wear a crash helmet on the thousands of bicycles we see. I wonder the head injuries relative to colds and flu?

This is a biscuit seller and the deer have a pavlovian response.

Herds of them throughout the park. In front is an old wisteria.

At the great southern gate  are housed the figures that guard the giant buddha. Made of

timber, some 3000 pieces each and carved in the 12th century. Just so impressive up close.

Guards are in behind wire mesh.

The detail is astounding

You then enter the massive buddha temple completed in 752AD commissioned by the then Emperor Shomu to bring peace to Japan. The great buddha stands 15m high, is cast from 400 tonnes of bronze and was originally gilded in gold! 

Massive timber work

Right hand up means taking peoples fear. Left hand is granting peoples wishes.

These are the bodhisattva.

These are Nio figures in the great temple carved again from timber. Very cute boots were enormous.

After all that we wandered about various other buildings that just blew us away. A thousand years or so ago how they manoeuvred the huge timbers to the heights and lifted the heavy metals we have no idea.

Bamboo pole on right is the striker

Giant doors

Saw dozens of these laterns made from metal...,would not want one to drop as you passed under

By this stage it was 5pm and not having lunch we were starving. Found a little place on the way to a bar we had been told about by the Icelandic couple on the last day of our hike.  They had said it was not obvious and boy were they right. You open a door into a

dark space then slide across a shoji screen made for dwarfs and hello a bar with 250+ whiskies and multiple other gins etc. Barman has impeccably trained and a delight to watch.

Tanaka owner of the Savant bar

Next day we completed the other sights in Nara Park we wanted to see of a more nature orientated focus. The wisteria gardens that photographers flock to in the early morning.

Immaculate gardens.

Lovely perfume

These carp were very large and ugly, like baby jaws circling with their mouths open.

Early afternoon we headed to the train station again to continue on to Kyoto. We will there for three nights. Be great not to have to repack our hiking packs each morning and move on. 

Came across these tortoise and every time we see some we think of the "Two Ronnies" gag about tortoise/meat pies. Look it up on you tube.

Hongchu to Nachisan

 A beautiful blue sky day after yesterdays damp affair. We got the bus back from our overnight accommodation to continue the Kumano Kodo track. There was about a dozen others on the bus. This is the toughest leg according to the write up with words like "brutal ascent" " up straight for 4.7km".  Jeff and I were soon well ahead of most other than a 15yr old Icelandic lad who was grateful for someone to keep up with. His parents set a must more pedestrian pace and he would stop occasionally for them to catch-up. "Hours he reckoned"..

So up we went and yes excellent aerobic fitness ensured we zipped up to the Echizen-toge Pass at 870m from 65m....in no time.

Sandra and her Icelandic new friend hare up the hill

Many prayer posts on the way. If you read the words below from the famous poet Fujiwara Teika (1162-1241) ....found the route difficult.....hence many prayers.

 

Very proud of Jeff, who is not a great fan of endless up hill, 4.7km, but he put everyone else to shame, who were half his age. Not seeing any other Kiwis, generally young French, Australians and many Japanese of course. A few use guides and the  middle aged academic fraternity tend to bus the hard bits and do other sections.

Final pray post before we hit the lookout over Katsura port town. Bag I am carrying is the map as although reasonable signage at times a bit opaque especially the sometimes mangled English.

Katsura port known for landing the biggest tuna catches in Japan

Finished the Kumano Kodo track at Nachisan after 70km. Well pleased with ourselves and no mishaps with all those moss covered stone steps, literally thousands of them.!

Nachisan is famous for the Segiantoji Temple, Nachi Taisha Grand Shrine and the Nachi Falls. The temple is centuries old, there is an 850 year old Camphor tree in the grounds.

The waterfall is the largest in Japan at 133m fall. Noise is impressive.

Taken by a young french lass for us on the final steps of Kumano Kodo.

Three tiered temple with waterfall in thebackground.

Many japanese visit this site as seen as a diety and say prayers

Wandered about the area a bit more....some interesting roof lines.

We found our accommodation which was basic japanese roons with shared bathroons and toilets. Impeccably clean and run like a " hi de hi camping ground"...over the loudspeakers advised dinner time "please come to 6 o'clock". Tables numbered and a beer from the vending machine. So funny like being in a time warp.   Dinner was delicious.

 Futon beds not withstanding we slept like bricks ( just like the futon). Hi de hi had us up again for 7am breakfast. Now travelling by train, 4.5hrs, to Nara.

Takata

Got the bus to Ukegawa then started todays hike. Torrential rain all day, otherwise known as a "wet knickers day". Wearing our Scottish any weather jackets and the trusty bin liners in our packs we set a cracking pace. Not much to see with the mist and rain. Saw a few folks but generally coming the opposite direction.

No not Dr Doolittle. Jeff used this umbrella because with cap and hood his glasses were constantly fogged. I am holding it while he does the Lord Snowden thing. In fact a lot of Japanese use them given the prevalence of glasses. 

Always lots of minature statues with coins on the side of the track. To keep pilgrims safe; not sure what from.

Plenty of these

Not unlike NZ bush with the fern. This is in a cedar forest.

Another good luck icon as you come off the track at Koguchi.

We got to our pick up point in a tiny hamlet with a phone kiosk. Phoned number provided and told " driver missing he be 40mins to an hour". Found a dryish spot under a shop verandah and decided to attack the bento box for a very late lunch.  May god it was inedible. Even the rice cake stodge we attempted but gave up. So another handleful of almonds and half snack bar each will have to do us to the next mystery surprise at our accommodation at 6pm. Will keep you posted.

Rice balls at the back and bits of an unknown origin at the front.

Hongu Taisha

 Hike from Chikatsuyu oji took us through small hamlets as we climbed initially. Folks have small plots around their house growing vegetables, fruit trees. Hilariously although they are using netting to protect from? Some have blow up plastic tigers hanging, I kid you not. We have noted no animals....you would expect a cat lounging in the sun or chickens scratching. No pigs or any other livestock seen. Also when we pass the many blossom trees not a murmur. In NZ a  tree in full  blossom is alive with bees and insects. We do hear frogs/toads on the tracks as multiple streams.

Front of a small home

Locals have amusing signs for dog walkers. Irony is that most dogs we see are hand bag models.

Bee hive sans bees

Good signage

Every 500m is a wooden post with a number so at this point we have walked 26km.

Like the Carmino Way one can collect "passports" or stamps found in these wee boxes along the Kumano Kodo.

As you come into Hongu there are these killer steps and after 40km up, over and down the track. 129 to be precise but as Jeff reminded the 990 in Petra took some beating.

Japan is a country of 126m people on a land mass 40% greater than NZ. So even doing a simple pro rata there are a hell of a lot of people here given the topography. Notwithstanding that pressure the waterways are very clean. Crystal clear in this area. Hillsides instead of being pine trees and broadleaf in NZ in Japan are a mix of deciduous, cedar so a more gentle light vista than the dark moody look at home.

Hongu is famous for the largest shrine gates in the world. 42m high. Story goes that there was a very large shrine complex on a island in the confluence of two rivers.  In 1889 a monstrous flood wiped most of it out. They rebuilt a third as these shrines as the main meeting point of the three pilgrim trails in this part of Japan. Folklore and legend of three moons shining down together etc etc. They have awe, fear and reverence for nature here.

Below is a couple paying homage to the diety. They bow then clap their hands twice, pray the bow again. 

It is a very serene place and very beautiful. There is also a wishing wall where I wrote " good health for my husband and I until our hearts stop beating".

After that surreal experience we endeavoured to buy snacks for the next couple of days.....

Any idea?

Do not think so....

So back on the local bus to the Onsen.  There are hot pools beside the river having been dug out of the gravel. One trots down in appropriate yukata, sits in the hot pools until broiled to the right temperature then totters over the 4m river stones and flings oneself into the river. Issue being the river is only calf deep so one awkwardly staggers in (where are the boat shoes) to cool down. Rinse and repeat. And of course seperate gender pools. Lots of fun.

Would you pick up this man?

Amarni eat your heart out