Kumano Kodo
The Kumano Kodo, day by day. The ancient pilgrimage through Japan's Kii mountains did not make it onto our radar until after we had hiked the Camino de Santiago — and in March 2026 we spent six days walking the Nakahechi trail from Takijiri-oji to Nachi Falls: 60.2 kilometres (37.4 miles), 7,894 feet of climbing, 24 hours of moving time, three grand shrines, and a stamp book filled along the way. The route is over a thousand years old, and there is a profound energy to the place — so much love and respect poured into the path, the villages, the gardens and the mini Jizo shrines along it.
Day 1 — March 16, Takijiri-oji to Takahara, 5.7 km and 1,499 ft of climbing. Started on foot from Takijiri-oji, the gateway into the sacred mountains, past our first oji shrines to Kirino Sato Takahara, the 'village of mist' — where the owner has walked the Camino de Santiago himself, there is homemade plum wine, his wife's cooking is delicious, and the whole place feels like a fully-broken-in home collection of nostalgia in the woods.
Day 2 — March 17, Takahara to Tsugizakura, 8.2 km. Ridgeline walking under 800-year-old cedars to Tsugizakura Minshuku, a charming traditional ryokan run by a husband and wife — he a chef for 50 years who comes out to shake your hand after cooking your dinner, she the hostess making sure you want for nothing. The most traditional Japan feels on the whole journey; maybe 4 rooms.
Day 3 — March 18, Tsugizakura to Kawayu Onsen, 10.7 km in the rain. Stamp boxes along the trail, cedar corridors, a tea-house village, and in the afternoon Kumano Hongu Taisha — the first of the three grand shrines, near the giant Oyunohara torii, the largest shrine gate on Earth. The town of Kawayu was so quaint: hot spring water rises straight through the riverbed, our hotel Midoriya sat right on the water, and our room had its own sauna and thermal bath. Cha-ching!
Day 4 — March 19, Kawayu Onsen to Koguchi over the Kogumotori-goe pass, 15.2 km and 2,454 ft of climbing — the biggest day. Early cherry blossoms, a pass jizo wearing a bib of coins, fern corridors down to Koguchi, and a night at Koguchi Shizen no ie, a schoolhouse-turned-lodge where Yuki the food-truck owner welcomed us blowing a conch-shell horn.
Day 5 — March 20, Koguchi to Nachikatsuura by the traditional river route, 11.3 km on foot. Down the Kumano-gawa with sedge-hatted boatmen — the one stretch of the pilgrimage you float — then Kumano Hayatama Taisha, grand shrine number two, and the 538 stone steps up to Kamikura-jinja beneath the great Gotobiki-iwa boulder. A ferry to the island for the night: Bettei Nakanoshima, a balcony thermal bath over the bay, and Matsusaka beef. Can't recommend it enough.
Day 6 — March 21, Nachikatsuura to Nachi Falls, 9.0 km. Up the cobblestone Daimon-zaka staircase through centuries-old cedars to Kumano Nachi Taisha and Seiganto-ji — shrine and temple side by side — and finally Nachi-no-Otaki, Japan's tallest single-drop waterfall at 133 metres, worshipped as a deity in its own right. Stamp book full, grand shrines three for three.
With the Camino de Santiago walked in 2024 and the Kumano Kodo in 2026, that makes us Dual Pilgrims — the honour Tanabe City created in 2015 for walkers who complete both of the world's two UNESCO World Heritage pilgrimage routes. The scallop shell and the three-legged crow travel together now.