Nachikatsuura to Ise, Day 8

Today, we were multi-modal.  First, we rode on a water taxi from our hotel back to the mainland, which took 5 minutes.  We walked to the train station after stopping at the world headquarters for tuna wholesaling. 

We were able to view the wrapping up of the tuna sales for the day.  Second, we boarded a train to Shingu, aobut 20 minutes north along the coast.  

We walked about 4 km, first to the last of the 3 major Kumano Shrines (Kumano Hayatama Taisha) and then up 500 steps to a large onion  stone and shrine, which blocks the entrance to hell, per Japanese legend.

Note the rice rope.

We carefully walked down from "the rock" on uneven, narrow and sometimes very steep steps, passing a brown striped snake (about the only wildlife we saw on the entire trek).  

Betsy is on the steepest part.

We went into town to pick up lunch items at a bakery, hung out at the train station wating for the two-hour train to Ise.  We  rode the train to Ise with one transfer getting off the express and onto a local, smaller train.  

After arriving, Jamie helped each person to buy train tickets to their next destination.  For us that is Kyoto in two days.  The group then walked over the "Outer Shrine" and toured first the museum and then the shrine itself (at least up to the outer gate - no one gets any closer than this except monks).  The museum introduced the importance of rice to this area and provided models of the shrines (there is also an Inner Shrine, which we see tomorrow).  Both shrines are rebuilt every 20 years next to the original one, thereby flipping back and forth between sites.  Jamie said that only about 2 weeks do both side by side shrines exists.  This pattern has been followed for hundreds of years.  The museum described some of the construction, which is Japanese "mortise and tenon joinery times five."  I loved seeing the various chisels, saws and mallets.  This schedule of re-construction is followed because the cypress wood used to build the shrine is not treated and is degraded in 20 years.  It must keep local craftsmen busy.  The last rebuild was in 2013.  The wood we saw today is already gray and losing some of its luster.  

We walked to our hotel, stopping for beers at a tasting room.  We had dinner in the hotel and talked mostly about the trek that we just finished and whether it was appropriately graded.  Some in the group felt it should be rated more difficult than what was given by Walk Japan.  For Betsy and I, our next hike on the Nakasendo Trail is one level less difficult than the Kumano Kodo.  The main difference iis the uneven terrain on the path, with the main rocks, tree routes and natural steps as opposed to flat paths.