Kumano Kodo

Daimonzaka → Nachi Falls Nachi ’26 ◎

Stone, cedar, stairs, water; a short walk that carries more gravity than its distance suggests.

Kumano Nachi Taisha Nachi ’26 ◎

Shrine, waterfall, mountain, and the feeling that landscape came before architecture.

Seiganto-ji Nachi ’26 ◎

The pagoda-and-waterfall image is famous for a reason; still, go past the image.

Nachi Falls Nachi ’26 ◎

Water as presence; loud, vertical, and older than every explanation around it.

Kumano Hayatama Taisha Shingū ’26

A quieter Kumano gravity in town; good after the train, before the next walk.

Katsuura Port Tuna Auction Kii-Katsuura ’26

Japan’s biggest fresh-tuna landing; from a second-floor deck you watch the morning auction, around seven most days but not Saturdays, rows of gleaming tuna and brokers working the floor, five minutes from the station.

Shirahama Shirahama ’26

A white-sand onsen town up the west coast; a good stop on the way in or out if you’re coming from Osaka or Kyoto, for the beach, the sea-cliffs, and an ancient bath at the water’s edge.

Minakata Kumagusu Museum Shirahama ’26

A museum to Minakata Kumagusu, the self-taught naturalist who catalogued slime moulds by the thousand, lectured the Emperor on them, and fought the shrine mergers that would have cleared these Kumano forests; ocean views from the top.

Oshokuji Dokoro Hirokichi Kii-Katsuura ’26 ◎

One of the finest meals I’ve had anywhere; small, intentional cooking that lets great ingredients lead, a short walk up from the harbour.

Yakiniku Hige Shingū ’26 ◎

A yakiniku counter grilling certified Kumano beef, the only place in Wakayama licensed to serve it, and fifty years at it; marbled wagyu over the coals with a house sauce that hasn’t changed, walkable from Shingū Station.

Tanpuku Shingū ’26

Good specialty coffee (and cake) a few minutes from Shingū Station; as much a gathering point for the Kumano Kodo walking community as a café.

Hotel Urashima Kii-Katsuura ’26

The area’s iconic hot-spring hotel, out on a cape you reach by its own boat; the Bokidō bath is the largest natural sea-cave onsen in Japan, open to the Pacific and best at sunrise, and the Space Walker, a 150-metre escalator bored up through the mountain, climbs to a summit bath and a 360° view.

Kii-Katsuura Station Kii-Katsuura ’26

Not a destination but the useful hinge: trains, buses, rain, walking legs, and the next temple.

Shingū Station Shingū ’26

A practical base for shrines, rivers, buses, and plans that change with the weather.

Hongū Hongū ’26

The pilgrimage’s pivot; buses run up the Kumano River from Shingū to Hongū, and from here more fan out to the trailheads and onsen villages of the Nakahechi.

Start early Kumano ’26

Walk before the day becomes humid and full; buy water, trust the buses, and let the first hour be quiet.

A swim in the Pacific Nachi Bay ’26 ◎

After a day on the trail, the Pacific at Nachi Bay; the little station sits almost on the sand, so you step off the train and straight into the sea.