2016 Japan's Kumano Kodo Ancient Trail Hike - Day 2
Day 2
2016-04-13 Wednesday
Takahara / Chikatsuyu
Breakfast was scheduled for 0800, but we were up early and went to the lobby to access the Internet, the only place we can.. Jean was already up and offered us freshly brewed coffee, organic Brazilian coffee that he buys green and roasts himself - another surprise - excellent coffee in the mountains of Japan.
View of the valley, clouded in the early mist:
The forecast is for rain, and the guide said that there is a steep climb that’s quite slippery when wet, It had rained overnight. Departure was scheduled for 9:30, but I made a motion to depart at 9:00 and walk a bit more slowly on account of the slippery trail, today is a short segment and the check in at the new inn is only at 1500 That 's why the plan was to depart only at 0930, but everybody supported my motion.
We left under cloudy skies. Just before we departed Jean gave Mellissa a bottle of red wine for her to celebrate her birthday:
Group photo in front of the inn:
It was a nice walk, up and down mountains, and the incline was not too steep. The rain only started when we stopped for lunch at 1230 at a little food store that had some tables. They allowed us to use the tables as long as we ordered food or drinks. We had brought lunch boxes from the inn.
Melissa and her birthday balloon:
Forest Shinto Shrine:
Going down to the valley:
Ant and the flower:
We arrived at the destination at 2PM, since we had to kill some time and the guide said the small family inn did not have a bar, we all went to a grocery store to buy beer and wine to celebrate Melissa's birthday. We checked into the inn, a small place on the side of a river that runs along the valley floor. There are only 6 rooms, but it has an onsen in a separate building, so soon Delio and I were at the onsen. The water was the hottest we have enjoyed had so far.
Dinner was early, at 6 PM. There was good Japanese food; they had the usual: pickles, cooked veggies, including an amazing cold cooked small eggplants, sashimi and the two specialties of this village. One is a pot of veggies and bacon cooked on a pot in the table using the hot spring mineral water. It had cabbage, bacon, portobello mushrooms, small thin mushrooms, noodles and lots of fresh tofu. The tofu turned the water milky. It was quite good. The other rice was from this village, instead of plain white rice, cooked with veggies in an iron pot.It is served with the burned bits and splashed with a little soy sauce. Excellent!! Oh, and a little fried fish that you were supposed to eat whole, from head to tail.
Liz, Melissa's best friend and travel companion on this hike, had ordered a western style birthday cake before the trip started and it arrived from a city more than 100 miles away! It was brought to the dining room after our dinner and was a complete surprise to the birthday girl.