Tsugizakura to Yunomine Onsen, Day 5

We had a big day today with a 18.5 km walk with 600 meters in three climbs.  We left the inn by taxi, driving 5 miles beyond our end point yesterday and avoiding a boring road section.  We immediately started on the first climb up through a forest to a pass honoring rice straw sandals.  The pilgrims would change out to new sandals at this point on the trail; such sandals only lasted for a day or so.  We then did a steep downhill which required considerable concentration.  After a while, picking one's way downhill becomes memorizing and requires constant attention to prevent a slip.  Steep downs are almost always the toughest part of a hike.  We had a second climb which took us through open hillsides with low shrubs, wild flowers and views across the valley. 

By the time I reached the high point, the sun was cresting and highlighting the slope with strips of sunlight.  

We descended to a river and then climb briefly up to our third pass and to a shrine where we had lunch in a picnic/restroom shelter. The inn provided three rice cakes, fish sausages and pickles wrapped in a banana leaf.  We descended again to another river valley passing an abandoned village site and a huge, stabilized land slide.  We following the river downstream passing multiple dams/weirs built to help control typhoon floods.  The river would flow, then disappear into the gravel behind a dam and then reappear below the dam.  We turned off the route at a monument to fishing, complete with a wooden boat and "undulated" through several mountain villages toward Hongu Taisha shrine.  This shrine is one of three major ones along the pilgrimage.  Four gods of the Shinto religion are honored here.  We arrived just before dark but still got to see the major builidings, pretty much alone. 

We walked to a "Tori" Gate on an island that commerated the original shrine before it was wiped out by a flood in 1898.  Four gods out of the original 12 were "rescued" by monks before being lost.  We were picked by taxi and driven to our to Yunonime Onsen.  This is a rather grand inn, with many rooms and an indoor and outdoor onsen (heated pool).  Betsy and I immediately went to our respective bathing areas, showered (again seated) and soaked in the pool.  Dinner was traditional and involved aobut 20 different items including beef slices that we cooked ourselves for 5 seconds, 3 varities of raw fish, seaweed, a puff pastry over mushroom broth, taro soup, salted, grilled fish, homemeade soy which is spiced with salt (a great idea), and a few more items that I am not sure how to describe.  

All in all, a long day but most satisfying.  Tomorrow will be a little shorter - we get to sleep in until around seven, as compared to six on prior days.