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Kumano Kodo
  • Lexie Magill
  • Lexie Magill

Kumano Kodo

Nakahechi and Iseji trails, then a few days in Osaka Read more
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  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler
    The yukata provided is acceptable to wear around the hotel, indeed the immediate neighbourhood
    To get to the outdoor onsen you swap your indoor slippers for some outdoor slippersBaths are gender segregated, there's usually just a red curtain and a blue curtain. Shoes off againInside the sliding door is a changing room and stuff for getting ready at the end. Fanciness variesFirst time I've seen lockers, it's usually just baskets in a bookshelf1You get completely naked now, and proceed to next room with a sort of tea towel for modesty if wantThis is an outdoor example but indoor is same - there'll be little wash stations beside a big bathYou sit on a stool and use the shower head, bucket, soaps and shampoos to wash your body and hair1Making sure to have rinsed all the soaps off, you then enter the mineral baths2And soak quietly. The water is about knee height so you sit on the bottom or side with just legs inWhen you're finished you rinse, dry, apply various potions and creams, clothe, and go. Fab!

    Nudie rudie

    October 4, 2025 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    This hotel has both indoor and outdoor baths, and they are in lieu of a bathroom in the room. We have a toilet, but the baths are communal.

    Due to walking we have gotten into a routine whereby our core bathing hours are 3-5pm, as it helps you get away quickly in the morning and be clean after the distance is done.

    Onsen are typically very quiet at this time so I chanced bringing my phone to show you some of the experience. I would emphasise the following points.

    A) I triple-dipple checked before taking any photos. I was solo at the start but a Japanese mother and tiny twins later joined me so no pics after that obviously.

    B) They're all different but follow the same basic structure, and I wish I'd taken pics of the one at Owase Ocean View.

    C) Louise, nobody came to put my creamies on, I had to do it myself, I can't thrive under these conditions.

    Okie, please accompany me to the captions.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler
    Us all learning about this typhoon 🌀 - no biggie just gonna be wet for a while
    This set was called Tuna Enjoyment and I compliedThat table's a big rock innitHitsumabushi - grilled eel with rice and dashi1Very glam walk back to the hotel

    Tuna enjoyment

    October 4, 2025 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 23 °C

    Felt appropriate to have tuna in the tuna port. We were by far the most competent and considerate foreigners in the restaurant which honestly isn't saying much for the rest of them. Just bloody TRY you flogs.

    James had hitsumabushi which is grilled eel with rice, and there's a correct way to eat it which presumably wards off flavour fatigue given it has quite a strong (delicious) savoury taste. As mimed by the elderly man that delivered it, you divide the portion in the round pot into four quadrants with a spatula and dispense them accordingly.

    1 - You give to me in the spare bowl provided, excellent, I shall tip this man handsomely.

    2 - You eat plain, just the eel and rice.

    3 - You add spring onions, seaweed, and wasabi to change the taste and texture.

    4 - You add dashi broth, thus finishing the meal.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler
    YTG - Pearls are the women's rugby union team for Mie Prefecture
    1See the tuna?The ubiquitous mandarinsJames using french toast to come off croissants, it's basically methodone1LOVE ME 😭1These damn lefties1My fingertips are hilarious in cafes🐬🥰

    These cats continue to scorn me

    October 5, 2025 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    The hotel is a 10 minute walk round the bay past the port, which is naturally busier in the morning, with tuna the size of big suitcases arranged in rows on the concrete and bouncing around in the trays of lil trucks.

    Between a sleep in, inhaling some french toast back at the excellent cafe from yesterday, another wander around town, and stocking up on food for the journey, it was time to start heading to Osaka.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler
    Panda limited express - one down from Shinkansen (bullet train)
    2

    Pandaaaa

    October 5, 2025 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    The journey involves a local train to Kii-Tanabe (checking your long range reading comprehension, do we remember that from right at the beginning, it was where we caught a bus from to start Nakahechi) then a limited express to Osaka, after which it's a subway and short walk to the accommodation. Both trains take about two hours, and I'm the captain. I've planned it and I'm running timekeeping, tickets, ICOCA card balances, and transfers. I excell. The journey is a raging success. We don't even have to change platforms in Osaka. We get the panda limited express again. We discover the intriguing cider bottle in the vending machine is a sprite/ginger ale combo. 10s across the board.Read more

  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler
    Here we go guysRat + bread = me1Scalp one collected1Customary glance at Dotomburi never to returnSushi train 🫶

    Bright lights, big robots

    October 5, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    City day one of four! We arrive around 3pm, self check in to our mini serviced apartment (not an Airbnb I checked rigorously) with only the most demure of hiccups, and prepared to stop bowing and greeting every person we see, lest we be mistaken for the bumpkins we are.

    The plan for Osaka is not to try to be everywhere and do everything, we are going to feed our specific interests and mooch the remainder, seeing what we see and getting lost. These interests are: robots; kitchen stuff; Uniqlo; robots; shoes; robots: toiletries; robots; eating tonkatsu and steak, given time on coast felt more suited to fish, and okonominyaki and takoyaki as iconic Osaka foods: robots.

    After being pilgrim paragons with our 5kg, 30L backpacks, accruing almost nothing save select meaningful dual pilgrim souvenirs until now, Jim commenced an offensive on a trio of robot shops that raged for three days and resulted in purchasing about 170L of additional capacity across two suitcases. Today was the first battle in this foray, I accompanied for moral support and occupied myself finding the funniest ones, the giggling not super well received amongst the purists.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler
    Sigh
    Me mate

    Japan's only weakness

    October 7, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    For science, we tested Japanese KFC expecting strong results. I regret to confirm, poor performance. Chips - unseasoned. Egregious. Afternoon redeemed with a walk around the slowly gentrifying, still dusty cornered Tennoji area and running into a big (balled) tanuki.Read more

  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler
    112

    My superbowl

    October 7, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    I've been remarkably restrained in my purchases so far and we leave tomorrow night. Suitcases have been procured (robots) and damned if I'm not filling mine, so I venture out with an empty backpack to a Costco type place and a standard supermarket.

    Over about three and a half hours I peruse fastidiously, and most of the inventory they have gets waved in front of the google translate camera. They might think I was sent from corporate for the world's slowest stock take.

    It is the best fun ever. James wisely leaves me to it, mostly because he's going to those robot shops for a 500th look. I haul my shelf stable catch back to shore over two trips and walk him through what is shaping up as one of the premiere private collections of rice seasonings of our time.

    Flush with our immensely successful hunter gathering, we go tick steak, okonominyaki, and the 7Eleven creme brulee ice-cream off the dwindling 'to-eat' list and call it a capital D Day.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler
    There was also a lil corridor with bathroom, toilet, laundry and cupboard. Horrific Feng Shui.
    11Humidity wreaking havoc on the salad2MELON SODA YAY23Bought three obvi

    Fourth and final

    October 8, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    I've been on logistics again and prepared a plan last night that involves luggage storage so obscenely cheap I assume we'll never see it again. The accommodation we're now checking out from has been on the ropes when you think of the prior competition, but all told has been well located, comfortable, washing machine and free breakfast equipped, and offered significantly, significantly more floorspace than other options. This started as a luxury and ended a necessity - frankly, we'd have been needing to tunnel hoarder house corridors through the robots had we stayed anywhere else. I'm calling the win.

    Our last day is a scorcher, so much so that the umbrella I was keen on the other day got picked up, as UV protection is all the rage here and we were up for anything. We can't fit anything else in our bags, so that was about the most restrained Don Quixote visit in it's history I'd wager. James got the Casio watch that had been on his mind too. Nice to scratch itches.

    Shopping now firmly out of bounds, we headed over the Osaka Castle for a walk in as much shade as we could find. It was great, it was, I'll repeat, BLOODY hot. Chose lunch almost entirely by proximity, fatty tuna got crossed off the list. To scan the plates they held this sensor remote thing up to the stack, and it then 'printed' a receipt onto this blank plastic slate we took up to the register. Very cool you guys.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler

    I'm published fam

    October 8, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    It's ME. It's me and the entire population of Taiwan. We're on the dual pilgrim website! You can't search as far as I can tell, so here's the screenshot. I'm proud of us. Maybe in a few years Jimbo will get on - he's got that patch to live up to!Read more

  • Lexie MagillKumano KodoTraveler
    11HisHersOurs 😅 - mind you we CAME to this city with 10kg between usWe walked over demPut this on my riderHaul pt13Haul pt.2

    End scene

    October 8, 2025 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Our flight is at 8.30pm, but we are (thank god) both the kind of people that round up generously in the buffer, so we start making moves from about 4pm. I literally don't want to hear it, Branna. We choose peace.

    Step one, collect bags - miraculously not sold/theived/otherwise mischieved. It was 650Y (like $7) to store all five all day. Absurd. Step two, get to and into the station, and again I've excelled here with finding luggage storage close to it, planning our ICOCA balances to the dollar and finding a lift entrance.

    Step three, metro one stop then transfer to the 45min airport line. Got an ideal corner to stand with our bags in nobody's way, and watched familiar stations whizz by in golden hour, culminating in a ride out over the water to close the big loop and arrive at Kansai Airport. Kilo-perfect on the luggage, which was a big relief.

    Suppose we could have wrapped a robot up like a newborn if we were in trouble. 10 hours to Sydney but in an emergency exit row - broken sleep and a lasagna that pushed the legal limits of the term managing to distract me from the nefarious voice suggesting we should 😈open the door😈.

    Front row to Hobart, and unlike last time it actually was Hobart, what a treat. If we were going to divert to Launceston again I'd have actually made a move for the door.

    Just like that, our lovely time away draws to a close and we're back to our lovely life here. We're very lucky. See you next time.    Read more

    Trip end
    October 9, 2025
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