For our next destination in Wakayama, we would be going to meet Tama the Cat, who holds the post as the “station master” of the rural train line Wakayama Electric Rail Kishigawa Line (和歌山電鉄貴志川線). Station Master, Tama the Cat (たま駅長) […]
It’s an early start for temple stay (宿坊). At our temple Daien-in (大圓院) the morning religious service (朝の勤行) begins at 5:50 am, lasting for about an hour. It is of course not mandatory and guests can join at any time. […]
After visiting Kumano Hongu Shrine, we continued driving north on Route 168, heading for Gojo. There we would change to public transport, which is the most convenient way to reach Koyasan. This part of Route 168 runs through the middle […]
20 minute drive from Kawayu Onsen brought us to Kumano Hongu Shrine (熊野本宮大社). You can find “Kumano Shrines” (熊野神社) all over Japan, and this is the head shrine. This is also one of the three grand shrines of Kumano, known […]
A packed itinerary today – leaving Shingu (新宮) early in the morning, we would first drop by two interesting hot springs: Yunomine and Tsuboyu, before getting to Kumano Hongu Shrine (熊野本宮大社). Then moving inland along the Tosukawa River (十津川) valley […]
The second part of our trip would be to various sites on the Kumano Kodo (熊野古道) pilgrimage routes. We had some good rest at Pension Dolphin (after the overnight bus previous day), and woke up to a beautiful sea view […]
Ise city is reasonably easy to access from Tokyo, with Shikansen plus express train it can be reached in just over 3 hours. But as usual to save cost and maximise sight-seeing time given limited vacation days, we took an […]
The G7 Summit 2016 in Ise-shima (伊勢志摩) was all the rage in Japan (not?). Several heads of states having a chat and nothing in the world would change after that. Anyway, the event probably made Ise a bit more well […]