2016 Japan's Kumano Kodo Ancient Trail Hike - Day 7

Day 7

2016-04-18 Monday

Kii-Katsuura / Kyoto

Last night I learned that the city of Katsura has a small fish market where the local fishing fleet brings their catches to market. A colleague from our hiking group and I decided to go and we agreed to meet at 6:30 in the morning  to catch the ferry to the city.

The fish market is really small, a fraction of the size of Tokyo’s huge market, but since I was not able to watch the auction process there, I was glad I came to this one, even though I had no idea what was going on, for a while there was nothing happening, just people milling around and inspecting the fish, the fish seemed to be grouped by type and size/quality. Most of the fish were tuna. All of a sudden (to my untrained eye) the auctioneer started his spiel, I could not identify any kind of signals or response being given and a few minutes later it was all done and the buyers slapped stickers to the fish or started to cart them off. The auctioneer moved to the next group of fish and the process was repeated. The whole thing did not last half and hour.

View of the auction floor from the mezzanine area:

Inspecting before buying:

Waiting for auction:

Auction:

Packing purchased fish:

Tools of the trade:

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and took the ferry into town and walked to the train station, stopping on the way to buy box lunches for or trip to  Kyoto by train.We arrived back at our hotel in Kyoto by mid-afternoon.

TOnight our group had our farewell dinner, before the dinner some of us got together at the hotel bar for drinks. We went to a nice traditional Japanese food restaurant specializing in grilled food. We had a grand time, it was a great cap on our adventure together.

Some final thoughts on this Kumano Kodo hiking adventure. Am I glad I came? Absolutely yes! Would I recommend it to friends? Yes! Best surprise on the trip? I have to mention two: the evening at the Organic Hotel Kiri-no-sato and the view and arrival at the magnificent Nachi Grand Shrine after the strenuous hike to get there. It was quite different from the other hike I just completed, the 88 Temple Shikoku Pilgrimage. It does not have as many pilgrims as in Shikoku, the Shinto temples are quite ornate in contrast to the simplicity of most Buddhist temples, and I did not see any of the chanting of groups of pilgrims, that I saw in Shikoku. In terms of scenery of the surrounding area and beautifulness of the trail, they are equivalent, in my opinion.