What to expect along the way

Food and Drink

One of the greatest pleasures of walking through rural Japan is the local cuisine which is served at the inns at which we stay.

At the end of each day’s walk the perfect way to celebrate is with a cold Japanese beer, a warm sake or a steaming cup of Japanese tea. All of our inns provide beer and sake at reasonable prices, and a few will serve wine.

The evening meal is a feast for the senses, as visually stunning as it is delicious. These “Kaiseki” style meals feature a wonderful array of meticulously prepared small dishes. The owners of the inns take enormous pride in serving traditional cuisine, highlighting regional delicacies. Ingredients are sourced locally and include “ayu” or sweet fish caught in nearby rivers and exotic vegetables sourced from the surrounding mountains. The meal is substantial and healthy with an assortment of meats, seafood and vegetables prepared and cooked in a variety of ways; pickled, steamed, marinated, grilled or even cooked over individual pots before you. Soup, rice, sweets and a little fruit usually accompany the evening meal. In large cities in Japan and elsewhere throughout the world, this Kaiseki style of dining commands high praise, with prices to match. We are privileged to enjoy this cultural experience in a simple authentic setting. At Koyasan, we will enjoy shojin ryori, the vegetarian cuisine prepared by the monks at your temple accommodation. Even for foreign guests accustomed to eating large meals with meat, the array of vegetarian dishes provided is a surprisingly delicious and filling meal.

A traditional Japanese breakfast is a great start for your day of walking. You will be served rice, miso soup, vegetables and some protein; possibly fish, egg or ham; all beautifully prepared. This style of breakfast might be a little out of your comfort zone, but it provides great energy for the day. If you can’t start your day without a coffee or western tea, we suggest you pack some coffee or tea bags to get you going! Hot water is always available. If you want a more western style breakfast, you may bring your own oats or cereal. Milk is available in individual servings for tea or coffee but not in large quantities for cereal so you will need to bring your own small UHT packets of milk if you want to bring cereal.

You may want to bring along protein bars and nuts from home for snacks along the walk. There will be some opportunities on the first few days of the tour where you can buy fruit and other snacks for our walking days.

In Japan, food allergies and intolerances are not common and are not always understood. The inns cannot usually cater to special dietary requirements although some may be able to provide a vegetarian or pescatarian meal.

Baths/Onsens

Japan is famous for its hot mineral springs and many of our inns have onsen baths. Bathing in the local hot springs has long been a part of the Japanese culture. It is integral to the Shinto religion which has a focus on purification. Japanese pilgrims, such as those walking the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail, regularly stopped at hot springs to engage in rites of purification and cleansing, making onsen baths a core part of the pilgrim’s experience. “Tsuyobu”, at Yunomine onsen, which we visit on our Kumano Kodo tour, is the world’s only UNESCO listed world heritage hot spring bath.

One of the great pleasures at the end of your walking day is to soak and relax in the inn’s bath. The purpose is not just to clean the body, but to calm it too. The bathing ritual is relaxing, invigorating and of course helps ease those tired muscles. Some of the inns we stay at have larger onsen style baths where several people can bathe at once, others have smaller baths for individual use only.

Onsen bathing is also a great social experience, a tradition dating back over hundreds of years and one still keenly sought out by Japanese people today. The onsen we visit are all for nude bathing, but are segregated into male and female baths. Bathing in Japan is a respectful activity and it is considered rude to look unnecessarily at others. The bathing area is often so steamy that everything seems a little out of focus and can’t be clearly seen in any case!

Some of our walkers find the idea of bathing naked with others a little confronting at first, but we encourage everyone to try it because it is such a wonderful aspect of traditional Japanese life. We tend to find that even our most apprehensive bathers are quickly converted, and some become addicted. At inns offering only large onsen type bathing, our group will often be the only guests and so bath times can be coordinated for those people who do not want to bathe with others. At other inns, using the shower early in the morning is the best time to have the room to oneself.

Bath Etiquette

In Japan it is customary to bathe at night and it is an unhurried activity. Although the inns where we stay are traditional, they understand westerners like to shower in the morning so, at most of them, you are able to use the showers (but perhaps not the bath) in the morning.

In your room, you will find a yukata (cotton kimono) and obi (the sash to tie around your waist). It is customary to put on the yukata after your bath and come along to dinner. You can of course change into the yukata in your room and pad down to the bathing area like that. You will also find a large and small towel placed in your room. The large towel is for drying off after the bath and the small towel is for you to take in to the bathing area to wash yourself with. The small towel is adequate to hold in front of yourself for privacy if you are feeling modest.

When you enter the bath area, take off your slippers before you step onto the tatami matting of the outer room. This is where you will leave your clothes/yukata and the large towel, placing them in one of the empty baskets or tubs on the shelves.

You don’t take any clothes into the bathing area, just your small towel. You may take your own toiletries but body wash, shampoo, and usually conditioner is provided in pump bottles. Swimwear is a definite no. If the bath is a smaller bath for individual use, you may need to roll back or remove the cover before using. This cover should be replaced after you finish.

Around the edge of the room there will be small stools and handheld showers. This is where you sit yourself down, scrub up and make yourself very clean before joining others in the bath. The bath itself is never for cleaning; that is all done before you set foot in the pristine water. Make sure to rinse off with the shower so there are no soapsuds left on you. You never rinse your small towel in the bath but it is perfectly acceptable to put it on your head as sometimes that helps you stay cool in the very hot water.

If you find the water unbearably hot, start by sitting on the edge and slowly putting your feet in the water until you acclimatise. The water can be extremely hot so take it slowly and be careful. In a small individual bath, it is acceptable to add some cold water to the bath but please avoid making the water too tepid for the person following. People with certain medical conditions such as high blood pressure or a heart condition or who have cancer are advised not to enter a hot bath. Please ask your doctor if you are unsure if it is safe for you to enter a hot bath.

Once in the bath, sit back and enjoy the rejuvenating benefits of the mineral waters. For the Japanese this is the time to relax and perhaps talk quietly with your travelling companions. It is not acceptable to swim across the bath or splash around or to talk or laugh loudly with others. You can go in and out of the bath as many times as you wish. Sometimes if the water is really hot you will want to pop out of the bath to cool down a little. When you are finished, leave the water in the bath; do not remove the plug.

For further information on onsens, bath etiquette and the benefits and risks of onsen bathing see the website of the Japan Health and Research Institute. (Risks are covered in the website under the tab “Things to keep in mind”).

Distances & Gradients

Fitness Level

How fit do you have to be?

Both the Kumano Kodo and Nakasendo trails are challenging walks; they require good health, a good degree of fitness and a preparedness to walk for several hours over several days. Japan is a mountainous country and both walks involve hills. The Kumano Kodo trail has more steep sections, some of which are quite long, relative to the Nakasendo trail. The trail underfoot on the Kumano Kodo is quite uneven which adds to the degree of difficulty. Anyone who is contemplating these walks must be prepared to train for them.

Different people will have different ideas of what is a challenging walk. Before committing to either walk, read our descriptions of the walking days, including the distances and gradients, and look at our gallery of photographs which include photographs of the trails. Then try to simulate one of the longer days by walking with your hiking boots and a back pack for a similar distance over similar terrain.

It is easy for someone unaccustomed to long days of walking to think that they will cope with the walking because they regularly walk for 30 minutes at a time. However it is very different to walk for 8 or 9 hours in hiking boots and with a day pack up and down several steep ascents and descents. People who have issues with their knees or feet, for example, may find that descents that they could handle at the beginning of the day are beyond their capability after a long day of walking. Good reflexes, balance and agility, all of which can be improved with training and increased fitness, will assist with walking on uneven terrain.

Although the Kumano Kodo walk involves less days of walking than the Nakasendo, it is the more challenging of the two walks. We don’t want to scare people as many people, young and old, walk the Kumano Kodo and it is far from the most challenging walk in the world. However anyone considering either walk needs to understand what is required and to be confident that they are physically up to the walking involved.

If you would like to join one of our tours but do not want to walk the entire route, please contact us as we have options to shorten the walking on some days. In addition, from time to time we run tours that skip some of the more strenuous sections and have shorter days of walking.

Luggage Shuttles

On the Kumano Kodo walk, your luggage will be shuttled each day to the next inn, so you only need to carry a daypack with your lunch, water, personal items and wet weather gear. You leave your luggage in the foyer of the inn each morning and it arrives at our accommodation by late afternoon the same day. We allow for one piece of luggage each, to a maximum weight of 15kg per piece. On the Nakasendo walk, same day luggage shuttles are not available every day. On a few nights of the tour (not consecutive) your luggage is forwarded one night ahead and you need to carry your overnight requirements in your pack. As the Japanese inns provide a cotton yukata for wearing to dinner and to bed and also towels and basic toiletries (toothbrush, shampoo, body wash), items required for overnight can easily be kept to a minimum to keep your pack light on these days.

Trains in Japan do not have much storage space for large suitcases. When trains are crowded, especially during holiday periods or peak hour, it can be very difficult to find room for your luggage.

Many travellers take advantage of the luggage shuttle services provided by courier companies. This service is called ‘takkyubin’ in Japanese. For a reasonable price, you can have your luggage forwarded to your next hotel, with delivery the following day in most cases. If you are travelling before or after the walk and you have extra luggage, you may wish to shuttle your luggage onto one of your next destinations.

One of the major takkyubin services is operated by Yamato, known as Kuroneko (black cat). The symbol for Yamato is a yellow circle with a black cat carrying a kitten. Your hotel will be able to arrange a pick-up service but you can also take your luggage to a Yamato agent, often at convenience stores.

You can also have your luggage shuttled to and from airports. On your return journey, you will need to send your luggage at least two days before your departure. Your luggage can be collected at the designated delivery counter and then you can proceed directly to your check in counter.