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Traevel Guide: Hiking Japan's Kumano Kodo

Traevel Guide: Hiking Japan's Kumano Kodo

A 5-day itinerary and an in-depth breakdown of our hike including the good (our hosts) and the bad (leeches).

Aemilia Madden's avatar
Aemilia Madden
Apr 11, 2025
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Taeste Bud
Taeste Bud
Traevel Guide: Hiking Japan's Kumano Kodo
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I’ve had a few people over the last few months slide into my DM’s with questions about my trip to Japan last summer. Namely, wanting to know more about the hiking trail I did. Japan’s Kumano Kodo is an ancient Shinto pilgrimage route that winds through the mountains and ends on the east coast. We took the Nakahechi route, which starts in the south in Kii-Tanabe, and then turns northeast, ending at the coast in Kii-Katsura.

On the trail.

It was an incredible trip. Exhausting, wet, hot, but a chance to connect intimately with Japan, staying in the homes of locals and popping into cities off the beaten path. The beautiful thing about Japan is even with limited Japanese, things that feel overwhelming and stressful seem to always work out! We took multiple forms of public transportation, sprinting to make our connections with no real idea of what we were doing and yet we found everyone along the way to be kind and helpful. The hike itself was gorgeous — though steamy. There’s a welcome luxury to ending a long day of walking with a soak in a tub so hot it felt like I was being boiled at times, I wish all backpacking had that luxury. Below, some initial housekeeping, and then a deep dive into our hike day by day.

Tips for Organizing The Trip

I’m happy to report that planning the multi-day hiking trip was easier than I expected. The Kumano Travel website is designed to make it fairly seamless to book your entire trip at once, even with only a cursory Japanese vocabulary. After researching the range of different routes the website suggested, we settled on a five-day itinerary that would take us past historic pilgrimage sites and over steep ridges, ending at the ocean.

When we were booking, we used Kumano Travel’s interface to choose where we would stay each night of the trip. Used to slick one-click bookings, it’s not the most modern system, but despite my misgivings in the moment (“is this sketch?” I asked Dylan more than once) it all worked out with zero issues. Rather than a direct booking, you read sweet blurbs about each potential place you can stay along your route and rank your choices. Then someone on the other end reaches out to each of these individual guest houses for you and confirms that you’re in.

I suggest also reserving a porter through the website, who for a small fee will transport your luggage each day from one destination to the next. It made it so we only had to pack what we needed for the day at hand, which made hiking much more enjoyable (and realistic as part of a larger journey).

Visiting Gotobiki-iwa.

Packing For The Trip

Since we were stuck with carry ons for our entire two week trip, I stuck to two hiking outfits, because I couldn’t afford the space for anything more.

I wore Chacos specifically knowing I’d be getting muddy, but ended up having to swap to running sneakers after I got a few blisters from the rub of wet straps against my feet all day. If I’d had the chance to dry off, I think it would have been a different result, but alas! It was wet!

The rest of my look throughout hiking was simple: shorts (Adidas and Athleta), two sports bras (Nike), a sweat wicking top (Athleta), a cotton tank (Buck Mason) a hat, and sunglasses (Oakley or Prada lol). We each carried a day pack (mine was Adidas by Stella McCartney) where we stored a rain jacket for inclement weather.

I also stashed my holy-grail purchase: a collapsible snow peak umbrella ($65) that comes with me any time there’s a risk of rain (it can even stow in a purse).

Now onto the trail!

Day 1: Kii Tanabe - Takahara

Starting the trek.

We spent the night in Osaka and hopped on an early train headed in the direction of Kii Tanabe. The connections were tight so we were nervous, but everything was smooth (that’s Japan for you!). We hugged the coast, taking in views of the ocean and the lush green hills. We arrived in the seaside town of Kii Tanabe where we grabbed a curry lunch at a local shop and waited to load a bus to our starting point.

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There were a handful of other hikers along for the ride, geared up in boots and raincoats and carrying their hiking poles. The temperature was hot and humid, with little bursts of rain hitting the bus’ front windshield as we wound our way up through the green hills and tiny Japanese towns. After 45 minutes, we disembarked by the side of the road, and began to search for our starting point, located at the merging of two swift rivers. We’d eventually find the path tucked behind the Takijiri-oji shrine, the first of many we’d stumble upon as we made our way towards the ocean.

Japan's Kumano Kodo hikeJapan's Kumano Kodo hikeJapan's Kumano Kodo hike
Japan's Kumano Kodo hikeJapan's Kumano Kodo hikeJapan's Kumano Kodo hike
Japan's Kumano Kodo hikeJapan's Kumano Kodo hikeJapan's Kumano Kodo hike
Row 1: Cute Japanese luggage tag, entering the cave, getting our stamp along the trail. Row 2: root steps, the view from Takahara, resting in robes. Row 3: Our tatami mats (aka our beds for the night) folded neatly in the closet, me in the small door frame of our room, plum wine spritzes.

We had narrowly avoided a full-on hurricane hitting the coast, but we still seemed to have caught the tail end of the inclement weather, in some ways it ended up being a bit of a blessing. It was fairly drizzly throughout our trek, sometimes straight-up raining, but while it was warm often around 80F, it was actually cooler than it might have been had the hurricane not disrupted the usual weather patterns.

As we wound our way up our first hill, sun filtered through the Japanese Cyprus, and roots wove their way into steps. It was humid and cloudy, and almost immediately I was overheated. A narrow cave appeared between two large rocks, Tainai-Kuguri, which translates to “walking through the womb.” It’s meant to purify the spirit, and for women is supposed to grant you an easy delivery (who knows, could come in handy one day). Four kilometers of climbing up and down ridges, accompanied by the buzzing scream of Japan’s giant cicadas, we reached our first stop, Takahara.

We slept for the night at Organic Hotel Kiri-no-Sato Takahara, overlooking misty mountains and grass-covered steppes. The rooms were simple, with tatami mats instead of European beds, but the chance to read, relax, and soak in the shared onsen after a day of walking was such a relief. Our host and his family served us homemade plum wine and a curious dinner that combined Japanese and Spanish influences as he serenaded us with his guitar. Hot pot was consumed, but so were tapas.

Day 2: Takahara - Chikatsuyu

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