Nora O’Donnell

To our delight we found interesting hikes everywhere we went. Our difficulty was to fit in as much as possible.

We began our walking exploration of Japan by walking on the Nakasendo – one of the five highways established during the Edo period as the official route for the feudal lord to follow on his procession between Kyoto and Edo. The route through the central mountains, particularly through the Kiso Valley (where we walked), is beautiful with little post towns such as Magome, Tsumago and Narai still preserving the inns, the notice boards, and the barriers of older times. The walks from town to town are well signposted, mostly wooded – very important as Japan can be quite a lot warmer than Ireland – with waterfalls and streams and views of beautiful mountains. At the top of the pass between Magome and Tsumago is a tea house – unfortunately closed but with an intriguing haiku outside;

Shirakumo ya
Aoba wakaba no                                            
Sanju ri

These white clouds evoke
Memories of my long walk
Under fresh green leaves

On the island of Miyajima we climbed the wood clad Mount Misen  to arrive at the top to be warned that the monkeys there have learned to open peoples’ backpacks and eat their food. Here we were travelling in the footsteps of Kublai – the revered Buddhist saint. We walked along the ridge, where there were glorious views on both sides of smaller islands dotted around the inland sea – one we nicknamed ‘chocolate kiss’ for its striking shape! We made our way to the Kiezu-no-Reikado where the fire in the temple was set alight by Kublai himself and it is said has burned continuously for over 1,000 years. From this fire was taken the spark for the eternal flame in the memorial park in Hiroshima. Descending by several thousand steps, we enjoyed wonderful views of iconic shrine Itsukushima-jinja

On the island of Shikoku – the location of a pilgrimage around the island visiting 67 temples and taking about three months to complete, we had to confine ourselves to visiting just one of these shrines, Kompira – san, situated near the top of a mountain.    The site has been prepared for pilgrims – one climbs by 785 steps to different levels with different buildings at each level – until one reaches the main shrine of Amaterasu. Then, surrounded by giant cedar trees, we climbed 583 more steps to the top where Tendu, the long-nosed demon, looks out from the side of the mountain across the plains of northern Shikoku to the vast bridge that links the island with Honshu.

Outside Kyoto we walked through bamboo forests and watched revellers travel by boat downriver and we climbed under countless Norii at Inari – that hike was in honour of the god of prosperity – we are still awaiting his intervention!
After all this practice, we felt that we could attempt climbing Fuji-san. Alas, a typhoon intervened and we didn’t make it. But no worries… we will just have to go back again!