Day 3
2016-04-14 Thursday
Chikatsuyu / Yunomine Onsen
To everyone’s delight, breakfast was "western". There were rolls, yogurt and fruit! Today we walked two segments of the Kumano Kodo Ancient Trail, the first was quite hilly and difficult and about 5 Km Then we took a bus to another village on top of a mountain, so that we would hike a mostly downhill 7 Km segment to the Grand Shrine at Hongu.
Both segments were beautiful. After we arrived and visited the Grand Shrine at Hongu we took a local bus for about 20 minutes to go to the Yunomine Onsen, a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn), famous for its hot baths. Our room, Japanese style, was quite nice and had a great view of the mountains. We were reunited with our luggage, allowing us to change outfits for tomorrow’s hike. At the hotel all guest use yukatas, the day-to-day cotton robe.
Delio and I quickly checked in, donned our yukatas and went to wash our clothes on the self-service washing machines. There was one little problem: the instructions were only in Japanese! We were trying to figure out which buttons to press to select the wash style and turn the thing on when an elderly Japanese woman, guest of the hotel, took pity of us and assumed control of the situation. We gave her repeated deep bows of appreciation and went to the onsen.
After cleaning ourselves up and immersing in the indoor pools we decided to try the outdoor onsen of the hotel. It’s on top of a hill behind the hotel and there is a self-service small tram that takes you up and down the hill. To reach the onsen we had to walk through a lounge area. Our saviour was resting the at one of the lounges and, upon seeing us she rushed to us and, using gestures made us understand that the lounge was a no slipper area. We were walking in the slippers given to us at check in to wear in the public areas, we failed to notice that the lounge area had tatamis… We slipped the sandals off, walked to the outside patio, put the slippers back on and the old lady came back running to point us to a shelf where you put your “inside” slippers and pick up on of the available pairs of “outside” sleepers. We bowed again in thanks, apologizing profusely for our “faux pas.”
The self-service tram was another adventure, all instructions were only in Japanese. This time we were rescued by a young Japanese couple, honeymooners also heading out to the onsen. The outdoor onsen was nice with great views, but it was rather chilly outside, so we retreated to the indoor one. By then the washing cycle was over and our Japanese friend, still hanging out at the lounge, followed us to the machines to help us with the dryer. Very kind indeed.
Dinner was at 1800, traditional Japanese, with the twist that the dishes were prepared with the mineral hot spring water, claimed to be medicinal. Quite good.
Morning in Chikatsuyu:
Steps leading to a torii gate:
Beautiful rhododendron:
Farmers shooting the breeze by the front door:
Flowering tree:
Steps and torii gate leading to a small mountain shrine:
Woman foraging by the side of the road:
Walk in the woods:
Small landholding, tea bushes in the foreground:
We finally arrived at the Grand Shrine at Hongu, one of the three grand shrines of the Ancient Kumano Kodo Trail:
Erico and Delio at the front gate:
Our room at the ryokan:
Our delicious dinner:
