Day 12: From Fushiogami to Koguchi
Weather: Perfect again! Cool all day, from low to mid 60s
Our room for the night:
Pre-breakfast of hot
vending machine café au lait and a shared roll, $4.
Breakfast is very
good, several items we’ve not seen before: rice porridge, a fish we reheated
ourselves, a half-boiled egg, and a very good miso.
Checkout at 9 ($10
for the beer and sake last night) and we board the inn’s shuttle for a ride
into town and a look at the only World Heritage site onsen: it’s probably been
in use for 1000 years. There is a local tradition of cooking the eggs (see
above) in the hot water and also veggies (is sweet potato a veggie?).
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| Our hotel |
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| Cooking eggs and veggies |
And, THB’s stamp
buddy is here, looking around. Time for another photo.
From here, the
shuttle takes us to a point where we can rejoin the Kumano Kodo trail. Somehow,
at the Hangu shrine, the numbers started going down from 75. Here’s our
starting point:
THB picks up a free
walking stick, worried that his legs may not hold out. DB gave him an Alleve
last night and THB thus slept uninterrupted for 8 hours. Unheard of! It turns
out THB’s legs are fine.
Mileage today: 7+
miles (4+ hours of walking), Moderate steady uphill, then moderate downhill:
the hike is 85% excellent footing. The last 15% are downhill on cobblestones,
THB’s nemesis.
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| extra large toilet (think bridge to nowhere) |
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| THB gets the green light, good to go |
Our lunch:
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| We're getting closer to the end of the hiking landmark |
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| The last maker of the day |
We’ve arrive at our
next minshuku early, in time for a nice soak, then some washing, a brewski, and
non-existent wifi. Our rent-a-wifi can’t pick up the local cell.
The minshuku is a
converted middle school: our room is nice, the communal bath is nice, the
communal toilets are nice, and the dinner is also nice, if basic: shredded beef
with onions, toro, a small piece of mackerel, cold tempura, two slices of
pickled cucumber, rice, and orange, and THB and DB share a small hot sake.
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| Not related to NY Momofuku |
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