Hopefully you are planning to visit Japan or you are inspired to go after reading my adventures :) so here some tips!
Itinerary
This is what I did in 17 days. If you want the costs, please reach out!
Hotel Reviews
Tokyo: Shinjuku City Hotel N.U.T.S
This place is great. Location is fantastic, just 10 mins walk from crazy Shinjuku but far enough to be in a quiet area. The good thing is the walk from the hotel to the station is very nice, either via the park or little streets. If feeling lazy there is another metro station 2 mins from the hotel.
The room was great with all you need and good amount of space in my view.
The people at reception are fantastic and speak english. The lady was great helping me with shipping my luggage to my ext hotel.
I would recommend this hotel!
Narai: Iseya
http://www.oyado-iseya.jp/index.html
Excellent place! This is a great Ryokan. The place is wonderful with a small garden, the people are super nice and speak english. The baths were not the best of the trip, but good enough for me. The dinner and bfast was served in a common room and each piece was delicious.
The room was big, had green tea and a welcome sweet. Yokata and all needed for the toilet provided. Shared toilets super clean and excellent location in the old town!
I would recommend and stay again here!
Kiso Fukushima: Inn Murachi Ya
Ok Ryokan in comparison with the rest. The lady at reception speaks no english but she is super nice. She ended up calling someone to be a translator. The bath was simple and nice. No food was served.
Location is good, close to train station. Room big and nice sleep!
There are probably better places to stay.
Kyoto: Hotel Unizo Kyoto Shijo Karasuma
This is a normal nice standard/more business type hotel. Location is good for a travelling base as I did. Its close enough to the train station and the main metro connections.
I stayed at the women's only floor I don't know for what reason and this was nice, there was a lounge with free tea and coffee!
Kyoto is big and everything will always be far, so I find this a good spot!
I would recommend this place.
Kinosaki: Morizuya
http://www.morizuya.com/
BEST BEST BEST place of the whole trip! The owner, Takayuki Hachisuka is an incredible host that will make you feel as if you are a very special person! The Ryokan is stunning with two private baths that are beautiful One with a small garden/fountain and the other which is a cave. The rooms are huge and super comfortable. I could chose among a lot, really a lot of Yukatas and all were stunning! The dinner and bfast were the best of my life! Because if had to take a very early train I got bfast very early at 6:30 which is out of normal times but this was not a problem. Takayuki Hachisuka took a lot of pics of myself around the village and then took me by car to the train station. The full experience was 5 stars!
I super recommend this place and would certainly stay here again! :)
Koya San: Fukuchi In (Monastery)
http://fukuchiin.com/
Excellent Monastery stay! the place its stunning, the temple beautiful. The room was ok though. Food absolutely amazing! I got the chance to participate in the morning prayer and there is a possibility to also do some calligraphy (at a cost). The private onsen it's really beautiful and there is also a sauna :)
Location was perfect as well! a great stay!
I would recommend this place and stay again.
Osaka: APA Hotel Midosuji
Normal business hotel. Here the room was too small though... location was great, very close to the main shopping area and easy access to airport.
There are probably better places to stay.
What to pack
Just normal clothing, no issues in Japan! Ladies, for me good news was that for the temples there is no need to cover shoulders or legs, you can go with skirt/shorts and sleeveless t-shirt.
Wifi
There is no wifi in Japan... yes, you hear it! even Starbucks doesn't have wifi everywhere. It is though very handy to have internet connection, Google Maps will be your BFF during the trip to check how to go from where to where by train, bus, etc and because you will get lost all the time!
I took the travellers 1GB SIM card and it worked perfect, lasted the full 14 days and I used it all the time for What's App and Google Maps, sometime browsing.
You can get it here: http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/
Japan Rail Pass
You probably know this, but yes, you need the JR pass, you will use it al the time, super worth it! I bought it here: http://www.jrpass.com/
Today its Friday! Wow! again waking up in Kinosaki to be served a delicious Japanese bfas in my room! Salmon, veggies, soup, milk stuff, tea!
The owner of the Ryokan is such a nice person! he made some pics again and took me by car to the train station so I made my 7:!3 train! So far, this has been my favorite stay in the whole trip and where I felt the most being in Japan. Seriously, walking in the streets dressed like that! where else could I do it?! The onsen, the ryokan... all of it... I am feeling happy! :):)
... And I deeply fall asleep in the train until Osaka. Changed to Kami-Kosawa to start the 5hs hike to Koya-San! I think I said it before? but this is the holiest mountain and place in Japan so of course I have to walk it as well, so boring to take the train and the telecabin!
Clearly I was the only getting off at that station, which made me feel amazing! :) jajaj the man at the tiny station couldn't believe I was asking for a hiking map to walk all the way. He gives me something in Japanese and points the mountain in front! I was like, cool, love it, yes, I can do this! :) For good there were some green signs, at least at the initial part of the path and of course my best friend of the trip, Google Maps :)
Detail was that I didn't have water but I though, its always full of machines.... not in this station though... anyway... I started walking... up, up, up, up, stunning green, greener, rice fields and beautiful jasmine smell at some of the lower parts, flowers and butterflies...
it started to get hot and I had no water.. ''fun!''.... At some point I was in the middle of the mountain, in this very tall trees jungle, it was muddy... and oups... I realised I was walking kind of out of any path..... yes.. shit! I was lost in the forest and then it was not fun anymore, jajaj.. but Ok, Google maps kind of gave me some orientation of at least which direction I had to go as the path is not marked. I decided to go back and then I saw where I missed the path.. hey! this is not CH, all nicely organised everywhere, jajaja cool, I felt safe again :)
Moving on into a very, very muddy corridor, fun! At the end of it I see some people, so I went where they were and asked, '' hey guys, do you know where I can get water?!" .. just a polite way of asking them for water :), jaja and the guy said, no water in the full rain, I checked yesterday night. They were super nice to offer some of their water in one of their used tea bottles. The girl ask, and food, do you have? I answer, well, no, but its ok.. and they gave me a sweet and a snickers bar. I was so not ready! I told them they were my angels and I went ahead of them... just in case :)
The path then got super easy. Some ups and downs, nothing big. It was funny at some point to border a golf court for a while. I passed two Japanese men and one woman... and then.. paf! I saw the sign of '' warning, bears have been spotted recently'' and I was like, sure! come on, like in the other hike... so moved on...and then other sign.... so I started to get scared. I really don't need to see a bear when I am hiking alone in the middle of nowhere! I did see a snake which almost made me faint even it was small, and that was enough of wildlife for me!
Ha! the warning signs said that I should not be there alone.. so this frightened me even more... then some rare noises.... at the point I googled bear noise... still no clue what what noise they make! I was really scared, stuck before a little bridge with all this strange noises for a while. Then I said to myself, ok, go, go , go, go face your bear fear Ludmila and ahead I went :) I knew I was about an hour to arrive, so not far at all... but I have to say, even if stupid, I wanted to arrive, I really had fear, fear of being attacked by a bear... now I feel ridiculous writing about it, but in that moment it was very scary!
Almost at the end of the hike I saw this old lady, aso in pink, just ahead of me. I never felt so good and safe! We arrived together to Daimon gate. Well done!!! I checked and did it in 4hs 20 vs the 5hs said to be, felt good but I think it was my bear fear that made me speed up!
Daimon gate its this huge red temple/gate! It was relieving to see this after the full walk. I was happy, sit down ad I saw I had some animals crawling my glasses and one on my shirt! jajaj I had to laugh at me jumping around to try to get rid of them... looking like a 6 years old! jjaja
I kept walking towards my monastery and passed some really, really, really, really beautiful temples and a magic temple complex. Wowwwwwwwwwwww! so many times I had the feeling of being in this surreal world. It felt like a fairly tale... so peaceful after the hike. I stopped some minutes to contemplate all these beauty..
Then I walked until I made it to Fukuchi In, the monastery I am staying in. A top Monastery with an onsen and top quality vegetarian food :)
I took two showers and a bath and food was served in my room! so hungry, no food since bfast! I enjoyed every piece of veggies, tofu, plants and rice. Finished off with a cookies with red bean paste and tea :)
It's a very nice monastery, I will explore it more tomorrow. For now maybe another bath and early sleep as I will join the morning prayer at 6AM.
detail... the name of the hike is Koyasan Choishi Michi. These refer to the stone posts that make the trail with number (in Japanese) until you reach 0 at KoyaSan.
I also realised how interesting it is to feel the different smells like pine tree, jasmin and other flowers as well as all the forest sounds I never heard before.. beauty for the senses :)
Ha! Buddhist vegetarian cuisine at least here is with no meat of course but also wait for it... no onions and garlic!! yes! really, this is my place on earth at least to eat! The name of the meal here is Shukuo :) loving it!
Good morning! wake up! It's 5:30! so nice to hear the birds and see sunlight, I wash my face with cold water and Im ready for joining the morning prayer... let's go!
... ok.. that was different and probably the closest I've even been to any type of ''religion''. The temple inside its beautiful! We had to put some powder in the hands before going in.. not sure what that was.. then sit down and after 3 monks started the ceremony. These monks were not skin head like south east asian monks. I still don't know what is the difference...
They started singing and pouring something into small bowls... one of my feet fall asleep and I was trying to ''play'' with that in my mind as I was told at the mindfulness training :) The full ceremony lasted for 50 minutes and then did a tour around the temple. It had a rock garden. There must be a meaning to it... which I still don't know.. shame on me! This one eas nicer than the one in Tokyo as it had more green.
Now I am having vegetarian Japanese bfast, each little piece its truly delicious!
Wow! amazing last bath onsen inside and in the outdoors bath, I am now ready to keep on hiking! :)
And I left to discover more of this holy place! Decided I wanted more hiking but this time passed by the tourist info place to ask for a map and an update on the bear situation :)
The girl told me they haven't seen any bears recently and that the signs are probably old, that it was ok for me to hike on my own! :)
Relieved I took the map and headed for the starting point of the '' Woman's pilgrimage trail''. This was done by woman to access some places when they were forbidden to do so. The hike was beautiful! lots of ups and downs, pine forest, more rainforest, shrines and temples as well as stunning super green views over the mountains.
This time I encountered huge bees, I think they were vespas! lots! I put my capuche and run! jajaj I got lost a few times, a guy with his dad helped me at some point to go to the right entrance of where the path was supposed to continue and at some point I learnt the hike name in Japanese as not all signs were in English. 6 characters and I could remember the easiest ones.. and yes, I had a picture :)
I felt very happy, jumping and singing around! I didn't cross any other hiker though... Am I so crazy or what?!!? I don't mind, bear fear free I reached my destination, Oku-no-in, after 2hs15. Stunning hike!
And this was a buddhist cemetery. One of the biggest and most important of Japan. Each tomb has a special mini monument and there are temples, and dressed up budhas and figures all over/ The special thing is that its all in a path of sedar/ pine trees that are very old and the highest Ive ever seen.
The full atmosphere was very peculiar. I passed a small temples, where people were prating and continues to the big one, Kukai Mausoleum, where it is believed Daishi is meditating in his tomb. Daishi was the founder of the Shingon school of Esoteric Buddhism, Kukai. He is the one that made of Koya San the centre of Buddhism studies. This temple was also one where they were having a prayer and one of the few places I saw Japanese praying.
On the way back I passed y a lantern temple....there was no one there so I was not sure I was allowed to go, but clearly I had to try and it was fine :) I left my dirty shoes at the entrance and immerse in this place with low light only coming from the lanterns. It was all gold and magic... I took it very slow... it is believed two lanterns have been on for more than 500 years!
I walked back to Koya San, stopped at a little temples which had looots of images of Myanmar ad brought me a smile and beautiful memories and then I saw a shop with a large queue, so I lined up! They were selling traditional Koya San sweets :) I took one of each to taste them all! Yummy!!! red bean paste and green tea, really its the perfect combination! I just love this stuff, why we don't have it back home?!?! I should open a business jajaja They were all delicious! And with my happy face and full sweet belly I decided to take my last hike down to the train station. (cable car option.. not for me..)
It took me a while to find the starting point of the hike. I involved locals and the keeper of a temples to help me.. and finally I understood I had to walk 10 minutes on the road and then the path into the mountains would show up. And indeed it did! This was also the old path taken by people to reach Koya San before there was a train and it has been ''intact'' over the years! with that, parts were quite of a forest, which I love! The path is called Fudo-Zaka by the way.
Once once more, only signs in Japanese, but I had my pictures as a reference :) and I knew there was only one way, down! Beautiful forest, some nice views and flowers! I had an attempt to do an ''auto'' jumping picture as once more I didn't cross any other hiker.... not a great shot, nut lots of joy :)
and then I saw the cable car and a little cute red train and kept walking down the station!
I felt good and proud of all my forest hiking, no more bear fear in mind, happy! :)
And that was my last nature experience in Japan, an incredible one! being in touch with green, walk in the forest past shrines and temples, rare sounds, fear, confidence, happiness, stunning views, nice shy people trying to help// it was beautiful!
Being very happy, I hopped on the train to Osaka with nice memories and thoughts! And yes, fall asleep....
