Kawayu Onsen
The tour company that arranged the logistics of the trip had thus far done a wonderful job, with each night’s accommodation being different, yet inherently Japanese. And such was our hotel in the village of Kawayu Onsen. It was most definitely a hotel, but was so Japanese, in a way that Holiday Inn is so American. This onsen village is known principally for the river that it sits on that has hot water bubbling up into it. There are shallow pits dug into the banks of the river where people sit in their own semi-private. semi -public hot bath. Very cool (or maybe, more correctly, very warm).
If I have been so enthusiastic about our tour company to this point, today we were to have our only disappointment. After a long hard day yesterday, there was no walking planned at all today. We were to travel by buses to Hayatama Grand Shrine and then more buses to Nachi Grand Shrine, before a final bus to Kii-Katsuura where we would be sleeping. It seemed like a lot of bus travel and a bit of a waste of a day, to see just two temples, as important and grand as they may be. And given that this village is so remote, we had to be on the bus at 8.40 in the morning as the next bus in the direction we needed to travel was at 1 p.m. A later start to the day, a stroll around this very pleasant village, some warm river bed soaking to relieve our very sore and stiff muscles, a pleasant 5 km walk in the area and then a late morning departure to one of the temples, would have been a better, more interesting itinerary. And except for a hot river bath, this is exactly what we did. We ordered a taxi that cost us $20 each, and by leaving later, it afforded us both an easy, pleasant morning in this picturesque but different area and also saved us a few hours of bus travel. We were a little disappointed with our tour company, that up to this point had thought of everything, that they hadn’t put a little more thought into planning this day.
We did make one mistake of our own. For some reason we found ourselves renegotiating the price of the taxi, even though we had agreed upon a price when we booked from the hotel. Simon was sitting in the front and so managed the negotiations. His opening gambit in the negotiations was to raise the price by 5000 yen. It worked brilliantly. The taxi driver was so taken aback by this opening offer of a 25% rise in the previous price, that he quickly agreed to the new fee. Simon was summarily sacked from any future negotiations. Not too long after we had agreed on this price, we were informed that there would be a further 800 yen surcharge, whose reason got lost in the Google translation. When you’re in the middle of nowhere, in a foreign country where almost no English is spoken, you are at an instant disadvantage and it’s difficult to stand on principle. We just figured that this taxi driver was acting in accordance with the International Charter of Taxi Drivers, where it clearly states that tourists are to be ripped off at any opportunity. Upon arriving to Nachi Grand Shrine, we saw that access by vehicle to the upper car park, close to the shrine entrance, cost, you guessed it, 800 yen. We felt a little guilty that we had thought the driver was trying to rip us off. Without exception and not surprisingly, given what we saw of Japanese culture, we found the Japanese scrupulously honest.
Nachi Grand Shrine
If you’ve seen an iconic photograph or drawing of a multi-tiered Japanese Buddhist temple with a waterfall in the background, then it’s Nachi Grand Shrine that you’ve seen. Sometimes the reality pales in comparison to the hype, like the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, and at other times, the reality is so much more impressive. This was one such instance, when the reality was so much greater than any sketch you might have seen. Despite the many visitors, this temple complex seemed to encapsulate East Asian spirituality. There were many pilgrims in traditional garb, lighting incense, praying and bowing at the various temples. The atmosphere was far more refined and the tourists seemed much more respectful than at the Hongu shrine yesterday, where there were more westerners, and of those westerners, most had just completed a 20 km or more hike and perhaps weren’t as pilgrimy as what the temple was originally intended. Though I would like to think that we were respectful of the temple’s status, I can’t say that our principle rationale for being at the temple was one of pilgrimage.
Kii-Katsura
We spent a good couple of hours in the temple compound before catching the bus to the coast, to the town of Kii-Katsura, where banners proudly claim that it is the town of Heritage, Onsen and Fresh Tuna. It is indeed a very sweet town, with interesting shops, a working fishing boat harbour and a ferry in the shape of a smiling turtle. The ferry takes you on a 5 minute journey across the bay to the town’s main hotel. Through the lobby, down a long corridor and you arrive at a very special public hot bath, built into a cave overlooking the bay and out into the Pacific ocean. This is also the first public bath that we had been to, and we were the only Europeans bathing naked together with 30 or so Japanese. It was truly one of those “joys of travelling” experiences.
This was our last night on the shvil before returning to Osaka and then Kyoto. Whilst we felt a tinge of sadness, that this amazing journey was about to be wrapped up, our overwhelming feeling was of elation, as we appreciated all we had done over these once in a lifetime past 5 days.
I may have stopped describing the fresh abalones, cured fish roe, varying types of hotpots, and assortment of seaweed, fish and seafood that we had been served over these past few days, but don’t for a second think that the quality of the food, both breakfasts and dinners, dropped off after we were so amazed at our first guest-house. Whilst very few portions repeated themselves, I can’t add another long paragraph to every long blog, describing everything we ate. You’ll just need to believe me that dinner number five was equal to dinners one and four, culinary and sensory sensations that we had never before experienced. Dinners two and three were merely excellent.
Earlier in the evening as we partook our pre dinner shpatzeerin we noticed a public foot bath in the town. The reception at our hotel assured us that it is perfectly acceptable to wander around town in our yukatas. I’m not convinced that the reception clerks weren’t bent over in hysterical laughter, having sent the four gaijin out into the streets after dinner in their pyjamas, but we weren’t in the slightest bit self conscious, strolling the streets and soaking in the foot baths, relaxed and without a problem in the world.
