Itinerary
Japan's temples, castles and the Kumano Kodo in 10 days
Ten days by rail, bus and on foot from Tokyo to Hiroshima: Nikko, Kyoto, Nara, two days on the Kumano Kodo pilgrim trail, then Himeji Castle and Miyajima.
This is a trip for people who like their history in several forms: the shrines of Nikko, the temples and castle of Kyoto, the deer of Nara, the white keep at Himeji and, in Hiroshima, a city that remembers its past with great seriousness. Between them runs the Kumano Kodo, an old pilgrim way through the forested mountains of the Kii peninsula, where the walking is the point. It suits travellers who are happy on trains and keen to keep busy, and who want one stretch of real effort among the sightseeing. The two days on the trail are steep and tiring, with few buses and cards often refused, so you need sound legs and a willingness to plan ahead. Everything else is gentle, from a quiet start in Tokyo to a last morning at Miyajima, where a shrine stands over the water. The best seasons are late spring and autumn, when the weather is kindest and the crowds are largest. Summer is hot, and typhoons can disrupt the trains.
The route
Pins mark where each night is spent and the days there; select one to jump to that day.
Day by day
Day 1Arrive in Tokyo
The trip starts here: Asakusa, Tokyo
Nothing on this day needs to be ticked off. Long flights tend to land at awkward hours, tomorrow starts early, and a first evening spent doing very little is the sensible way to begin a ten-day trip. Asakusa suits that, because it is the district of Senso-ji and Tobu Asakusa Station, where the Nikko limited express leaves, is there too. Wander without a destination, eat something simple and go to bed. Tokyo has no World Heritage site on this route, so the day is deliberately a buffer for jet lag and late arrivals. If you land early and feel fine, Senso-ji is the one visit worth making.
- Asakusa, Tokyo
Asakusa is the district of Senso-ji, which describes itself as the oldest temple in Tokyo and says it draws 30 million worshippers a year. The temple dates its principal image to 628, when two brothers fishing in the Sumida River found a statue of Kannon in their net. Since 645 the statue has been kept hidden in a shrine with multiple locks, and even the chief priests have not seen it. Tokyo has no World Heritage stop here, so keep the day light, and sleep near Tobu Asakusa Station, where tomorrow's limited express to Nikko leaves.
Day 2Nikko by limited express
A full day trip, taken at a steady rather than hurried pace. The limited express carries you out of the city in about 1 hour 50 minutes, and the rest of the day is spent among the shrines and temples of Nikko, which together make up one World Heritage site. Each has a different character: Toshogu is the grand showpiece, Rinnoji is a wide Buddhist temple with halls and pagodas, and Futarasan is an ancient shrine tied to the mountain. Expect steps and a lot of walking, and expect company at Toshogu in particular. Start early, see Rinnoji before the crowds build, and keep the last hour for the bridge before the train back.
- ToshoguShrines and Temples of Nikko
Toshogu is the shrine of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo period. The Tobu railway notes its statues of three monkeys who see, hear and speak no evil, and the shrine's own visitor page lists a sleeping cat on the east corridor and a crying dragon in the Honji-do. An audio guide covers 29 buildings in the precinct. Take an early Tobu train: the shrine opens at 9am and admits no one in the last 30 minutes before closing, which comes earlier in winter.
- RinnojiShrines and Temples of Nikko
Rinnoji is the area's great Buddhist temple. Halls and pagodas stand alongside 15 branch temples, and the Tobu railway says it began as a temple built by the priest Shodo Shonin when he introduced Buddhism to Nikko more than 1,250 years ago. Next to Toshogu it is a calmer visit. It opens at 8am, which is a quieter way to begin than Toshogu, and entry stops 30 minutes before closing.
- Futarasan Shrine and ShinkyoShrines and Temples of Nikko
Futarasan Shrine is the ancient shrine that began mountain worship in the Nikko area, dedicated to the spirit of Mount Nantai, also called Futarasan. The Shinkyo bridge belongs to the shrine and is regarded as the traditional gateway to the World Heritage area, so it makes a fitting end to the day. Allow an hour here, then take the limited express back. The journey to Asakusa takes about 1 hour 50 minutes.
Day 3Tokyo to Kyoto by Shinkansen
A travel day with a single visit at the end. The Nozomi bullet train covers the distance from Tokyo to Kyoto in about two hours and ten minutes, which leaves the afternoon free, and the city is a sensible place to ease into the pace of the next days. Kyoto is the base for two nights of sightseeing, so there is no need to rush. Nijo Castle makes a good first look because it gives you the Kyoto of the shoguns before the temples of the next day. Check in, take the castle in the afternoon, then walk and find dinner. This is a short day, and one stop is enough.
- Nijo CastleAncient Kyoto Monuments
Nijo Castle's Ninomaru Palace was the Kyoto residence of the shogun, and the castle describes it as the only surviving example of a fortified palace complex, a National Treasure. Its six connected buildings hold rooms with Kano School wall paintings, including bamboo and tigers. The corridor floors sing like nightingales when you walk on them, caused by clamps moving against nails. The castle adds that the idea that this was meant to warn of intruders is a mistake. The castle opens at 8.45am, with palace reception until about 4pm.
Day 4Kyoto: Higashiyama and the north-west
Two very different temples on opposite sides of Kyoto, joined by a cross-city journey that eats part of the day. Kiyomizu-dera is on a hillside to the east and rewards an early start. Kinkaku-ji is on the north-western edge of the city and brings the crowds, whatever the hour. One is wood, steps and views; the other is a single gold building beside water. Both are popular, so the day is about timing more than stamina. Do not add a third stop: the transfer between them is already the longest part of the day. Keep the evening free for a slow dinner.
- Kiyomizu-deraAncient Kyoto Monuments
Kiyomizu-dera was founded in 778, halfway up Mt. Otowa in the Higashiyama hills, and takes its name, meaning pure water, from the waterfall there. The broad wooden stage of about 200 square metres hangs out from the Main Hall on pillars over 13 metres high, looking over the city. Fire has destroyed most of the buildings more than ten times, and most of the present ones date from 1633. It opens at 6am, which is the time to go if you dislike crowds. The closing time changes with the season, so check the temple's timetable.
- Kinkaku-jiAncient Kyoto Monuments
Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, is officially Rokuon-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple. The pavilion was built as a relics hall for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third Ashikaga shogun, whose Kitayama villa stood on the site and who left the estate to become a temple. It lies in the north-western corner of Kyoto, with mountains to the west. It is open 9am to 5pm. Expect crowds at any hour, and be honest about the reason: everyone has seen the photograph and wants the same view of the pond.
Day 5Nara, then south to Kii-Tanabe
The day swings from the old capital to the start of the mountains. The morning is Nara, where the temple precinct and the park share the same ground and wild deer wander between them. By late morning you turn south, and the afternoon is spent on trains, changing at Tennoji and then running down the Kii peninsula to the coast. Kii-Tanabe is a small coastal city whose role for most visitors is to start the pilgrim trail. Expect a quiet evening and an early night. Everything you will need for the walk, including cash, is better bought or packed here than on the trail.
- Todai-jiHistoric Monuments of Ancient Nara
Todai-ji's Great Buddha Hall holds the bronze Vairocana Buddha, a National Treasure of the eighth century. The temple says the hall burned in 1180 and again in 1567, and the present Edo-period building is seven bays wide where the original was eleven, because money was short, though height and depth are unchanged at 48.7 metres high. The temple calls it the largest wooden structure in the world. The hall opens at 7.30am from April to October and 8am from November to March. Go to the hall first, then take your time over the rest of the precinct.
- Nara Park
Nara Park covers about 660 hectares in the east of the city and holds Todai-ji, Kofuku-ji, Kasuga Taisha and the Kasugayama Primeval Forest. The tourism association says about 1,300 wild deer roam in herds among its lawns and 1,000-year-old pines, and are regarded as the legendary divine deer of Kasuga Taisha. The park is free and always open. Feed the deer only the crackers sold for the purpose, and carry your rubbish out, because there are no bins.
- Kii-Tanabe
Leave Nara by late morning: JR to Tennoji takes about 36 minutes, then the Kuroshio limited express to Kii-Tanabe about 1 hour 45 minutes. Kii-Tanabe is the gateway to Kumano. Tokei-jinja, which the tourism bureau says was established in 419 AD, is where imperial and aristocratic pilgrims prayed for safe passage, and some prayed here and went no further. Pray for a safe walk there, then sleep early.
Day 6Kumano Kodo: Takijiri-oji to Chikatsuyu
The first walking day and the hardest. About six hours on foot cover 16 kilometres, beginning with a steep mountain staircase behind the shrine and climbing to ridge-top villages where the valley is often filled with mist. The route follows an old pilgrim way marked by small shrines called oji, and you are walking where pilgrims have gone for more than a thousand years. The rewards are ordinary and real: a village shrine with ancient camphor trees, a lunch stop, and a hot bath and a set dinner at an inn. Start early, carry water and food, and expect to be tired by the end.
- Takijiri-ojiKii Mountain Range
Take the 8.37am bus from Kii-Tanabe Station (about 40 minutes) to Takijiri-oji, the traditional start of the walk. It lies where two sacred rivers meet, and the tourism bureau says it is often believed to be the entrance to both the Land of the Gods and the Land of the Dead. A pilgrim centre stands across the road from the shrine. The first stretch is a steep mountain staircase behind the shrine, up Mt. Tsurugi.
- Takahara
About 2.5 hours uphill from the trailhead, this ridge village at about 300 metres is called the Village in the Mist, because the valley below sometimes fills with fog like a sea of clouds. Its shrine, Takahara Kumano-jinja, has a Kasuga-style pavilion with Muromachi-period paintings, and camphor trees believed to be over 1,000 years old. The village became a post town for pilgrims in the Edo period. On a clear morning the view is the reason to stop.
- Chikatsuyu
Chikatsuyu is a small, quiet village of about 450 people on the Hidaka River, with inns along the main road and an ancient weeping cherry tree. Wooden placards in the yards mark where Edo-period inns stood, and a grocery store a few hundred metres south is good for buying lunch for the next day. Takijiri-oji to Chikatsuyu is about 16 kilometres, roughly 6 hours of walking. Reach your inn by 5pm for the bath and the 6pm dinner, and book it well ahead.
Day 7Kumano Kodo: Hosshinmon-oji to Hongu and Yunomine
A shorter walk and a more rewarding one. A bus takes you up to Hosshinmon-oji, so you start on the trail rather than climbing to it, and the route passes through a village, a forest and then terraced fields and tea plantations before the first sight of the great shrine in the valley below. The tourism bureau calls the section an excellent half-day walk. After the shrine comes a steep climb and descent over the Dainichi-goe pass to Yunomine, a hot-spring village in a small valley. A long bath is the proper end to two days of walking. Keep some yen for shops, since cards are often not accepted.
- Hosshinmon-ojiKii Mountain Range
Take an early bus east to Hosshinmon-oji; a 7.23am departure from Chikatsuyu-oji is listed in the tourism bureau's notes. The bureau calls the oji the gate of awakening of the aspiration to enlightenment, and the outermost entrance to the sacred precinct of Kumano Hongu Taisha. From here to Hongu is about 7 kilometres, 2 to 3 hours, past folk-art word carvings, and Fushiogami, where pilgrims fell to their knees on first glimpsing the grand shrine.
- Kumano Hongu TaishaKii Mountain Range
Kumano Hongu Taisha, one of the three grand shrines of Kumano, is reached by 158 stone steps beyond a torii that marks the border of the sacred place. The shrine says the lines of pilgrims in the Kamakura period were known as ants making their way to Kumano. Leave time for the heritage centre beside it. The village has a post office with an ATM, useful because cards are often not accepted on the trail.
- Dainichi-goe to Yunomine OnsenKii Mountain Range
Walk the Dainichi-goe pass to Yunomine Onsen, about 2 kilometres in 1 to 2 hours. It is a steep climb and descent, so do it only if your legs agree. The tourism bureau says Yunomine is thought to be one of the oldest hot springs in Japan, where pilgrims once purified themselves before worshipping at Hongu. Its small Tsuboyu bath, registered as World Heritage, is private for one or two people for 30 minutes, first come, first served.
Day 8Hongu to Kii-Tanabe
The slowest day of the trip, and a deliberate one. The walking is finished, and what remains is a quiet start in Hongu and a long bus journey back to the coast. Use the morning for Oyunohara, the original site of the shrine, then take the bus to Kii-Tanabe, which the tourism bureau's figures put at roughly 1 hour 50 minutes. You arrive in time for a proper evening in the town. There is nothing to prove today. Rest your legs, eat well, and check the next morning's train, because tomorrow is the longest day on the rails.
- Oyunohara
Oyunohara is the original site of Kumano Hongu Taisha, on a sandbank where three rivers meet. The shrine says a great flood in the Meiji period washed away most of the buildings, and the main shrines were moved to the western hill. A torii the shrine puts at 34 metres tall, raised in 2003, marks the site, and the tourism bureau calls it what is said to be Japan's largest. Buses back leave from Hongu Taisha-mae; confirm the last one the day before.
- Ajikoji
Hongu to Kii-Tanabe by bus is roughly 1 hour 50 minutes, adding the bureau's figures for the two sections. In the evening, the lanes by the station hold over 200 restaurants and izakaya, a compact area the bureau calls Ajikoji. Benkei, a legendary warrior monk said to have been born in the town, has a statue on the station forecourt, which makes an easy meeting point.
Day 9Himeji and Hiroshima
The longest day on the rails, and the one that pays back most. The Kuroshio limited express takes you to Shin-Osaka, the Shinkansen carries you on to Himeji, and the castle is the reward for the early start. After that the line runs west to Hiroshima, where the second half of the day is quieter and more serious. Expect to spend about three hours or more reaching Himeji, so take the first train you can. Travel light, keep the castle to the time it needs, and give the museum the evening, with a ticket booked ahead.
- Himeji CastleHimeji-jo
Himeji Castle is known as White Heron Castle, after the white plaster that makes the main keep look like a heron taking flight. The Japan National Tourism Organization says it was the first castle in Japan to be registered as a World Heritage site, in 1993. Inside, the floors are wood and the stairs steep, so bring a shoe bag. From Kii-Tanabe take the Kuroshio to Shin-Osaka (about 2 hours), then the Shinkansen to Himeji (about 30 minutes). The castle is open 9am to 5pm, last entry 4pm; allow 90 to 120 minutes.
- Atomic Bomb DomeHiroshima Peace Memorial
Himeji to Hiroshima by Shinkansen is about an hour. The dome was built in 1915 as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, by the architect Jan Letzel. It stood directly under the explosion at 8.15am on 6 August 1945, and in 1966 the city council resolved to preserve it. You cannot go inside. From Hiroshima Station the tram to Genbaku Dome-mae takes about 16 minutes, and the dome stands beside the Peace Memorial Park.
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
The museum shows belongings left by victims, A-bombed artifacts, testimonies of survivors and the paper cranes folded by Sadako. It is open 7.30am to 7pm from September to November, and is very crowded by day. The museum recommends early mornings or evenings, and a WEB ticket bought ahead. Its visitor guide for the main building is designed to take about 30 minutes.
Day 10Miyajima and back to Hiroshima
A gentle last day: a short train, a short ferry and a shrine that stands over the water. Miyajima is a small island, and the crossing is part of the visit, with the great torii in view from the boat. The tide decides much of what you see, since the gate can be reached on foot only at low tide, so check the table before you set out. Allow the morning for the shrine and the ferry, and the afternoon for a slow return to Hiroshima. The pace is easy, the distances are short, and this is a calm day to finish on.
- Great Torii ferry
The Great Torii ferry runs from Miyajimaguchi between 9.10am and 4.10pm and passes close to the gate. The grand torii stands out in the bay, so that at high tide it seems to float, and it can be walked to only at low tide, so check the tide table. Treat the ferry as a way of seeing the gate from the water, and the walk at low tide as an option.
- Itsukushima ShrineItsukushima Shinto Shrine
Itsukushima Shrine sits elevated over the water, with covered corridors linking its buildings. Its own history says an ancient record dates the founding to 593, and that Taira no Kiyomori rebuilt it in 1168 in the style of a noble's residence. From Hiroshima take the JR Sanyo Line to Miyajimaguchi (about 29 minutes), then the ferry (about 10 minutes). The shrine opens at 6.30am and closes at 5.30pm from 15 October to 30 November.
Practical notes
Rail does most of the work: the Shinkansen between Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima, a Tobu train to Nikko, JR to Nara, and the Kuroshio limited express to Kii-Tanabe (reserved seats, so book early). On the Kumano Kodo you depend on local buses. They fill in spring and autumn, so take an early one and keep a second plan. A daily luggage shuttle runs on the trail: send the big bag ahead and carry a daypack.
Stay near Asakusa in Tokyo, in central Kyoto, at Kii-Tanabe, in village inns at Chikatsuyu and Yunomine, and in Hiroshima. Trail inns serve dinner at about 6pm and fill early, so book first. Budget is mid-range, rising a little for the trail inns.
Late March to May and October to November are the best months, and both are busy. Rain on the Kii peninsula is heavy at any time, and typhoons can stop JR trains. Himeji Castle has no air conditioning, so summer is hard going.
The hard part is Kumano: steep climbs, two long days and few buses. Reread the trail notices on the Kumano tourism bureau's site before you travel. Check entry rules with the Japanese government and your own country's official travel advice.
Practical details checked on
Sites covered
- Shrines and Temples of NikkoJapanCultural
- Ancient Kyoto MonumentsJapanCultural
- Historic Monuments of Ancient NaraJapanCultural
- Kii Mountain RangeJapanCultural
- Himeji-joJapanCultural
- Hiroshima Peace MemorialJapanCultural
- Itsukushima Shinto ShrineJapanCultural