Here's some additional information related to our tours, the Kumano Kodo and the Kumano region. If you don't find your questions answered here, please send us a message through our Contact page.
About the Kumano region
What is the Kumano Kodo?
How far is the Kumano Kodo from Kyoto?
What to expect and what to bring
What should I bring?
How strenuous is the trekking?
What is the maximum group size?
What is the lodging like?
What is the food like?
What if I have allergies or dietary constraints?
How much spending money should I bring?
Logistics and other
What transportation should I arrange?
I have extra bags that I don't want to take on the tour, what should I do?
Our tours cover quite a large area. All of our tours start in Koyasan which is roughly 2.5 hours drive from Kyoto.
What to Bring
A good fitness is required for the hiking portions of the Kumano Kodo trail on both our Pilgrimage and World Heritage tours. Participants should be prepared to hike up to 15 km or 9 mi in a day and climb 250 meters in elevation (of 10% grade) a couple times each day. In terms of time we will usually hike between 4-6 hours on most days. The trail does not reach altitudes above 800 m and there is no scrambling (using your hands to climb) involved, so no need to worry about that. Participants are strongly advised to practice hiking with a backpack up hills or mountains for similar distances before coming on our tours.
There is a maximum of 5 guests to a guide. Groups larger than 5 will require special arrangements.
We will on occasion run group tours, the maximum capacity is 8.
We stay at family-run inns and ryokans, and both the service and the food is excellent. Our group tours are based on double-occupancy rooms. At each inn or ryokan, there are private bathing facilities as well as hot springs that are in-house or within a short walk.
While most of the lodging we stay at has futons to sleep on, some have proper western beds. If you would prefer to sleep on a bed, please let us know when you make your booking inquiry and we'll do our best to make it happen.
Delicious! Our lodging provides small-batch, homemade Japanese and Kumano cuisine. This means rice, soup, fish, pickles, pork, chicken, beef, and farm-fresh vegetables. Especially in the ryokan lodging, dinners tend to have many dishes, often up to ten, including dessert. Breakfasts tend to be a bit simpler, usually rice, eggs, soup and fish. For lunch the chefs will send us off with a bento lunch to power us through the day.
In Japan it's next to impossible to have an authentic culinary experience with dietary restrictions such as gluten intolerance and veganism, even pescatarians and vegetarians can have a difficult time. If you have dietary restrictions such as these, we can do our best to have the chefs at our lodging cater to your needs, but it will be very difficult to have a fully-rounded meal.
If you do have dietary restraints, please let us know and we will call our lodging to see how they will be able to cater to you.
Our tours include accommodation, 2 meals at each accommodation, 1 packed lunch every day and transportation. We highly recommend that you bring your own snacks for hiking the trail. Options to buys supplies along the trip will be limited so it is best to have all of your snacks ready!
At Hongu Shrine you'll also be able to purchase alms, charms and artwork in the surrounding shops.
Additionally, beer, sake and other delicious beverages are not included in the tour.
If you are on a self-guided Koyasan World Heritage Tour, make sure to have cash for transportation to your next destination from Hongu.
Keep in mind and Japan is largely cash based!
Your Transportation throughout the tour is included. You will get picked up on your first day and dropped off on your last day in either central Osaka or Kyoto.
Transportation to Osaka or Kyoto before the tour and out of Osaka or Kyoto after the tour is not included.
You may bring one hiking backpack, and a medium sized suitcase with you on the tour.
For luggage you will not be bringing with you, we recommend that you send your bags to the accommodation you'll be staying at after the tour. This is a fairly common and very affordable practice in Japan. A large suitcase can be shipped anywhere in Japan for around 1,500 to 3,000 yen with the Black Cat courier service (Takkyubin in Japanese), most 7/11 stores can help you with this!
Major train stations such as Kyoto or Osaka will also have lockers or storage facilities.
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