Kumano Kodo - Iseji 2 : 熊野古道伊勢路 2 (2024)

nearFunae, Mie (Japan)

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Day 2 of Kumano Kodo: 3 routes for 3 weeks

Checked out of the hotel at 7am and we visited Ise Jingu Geku shrine. Before we came out of the shrine, a light rain began and it soon started pouring. Though we have good rain jackets and pants, we got umbrellas at a convenience store, since we knew 95% of today’s walking would be on asphalt and mostly along busy city driveway or residential area streets.
We ate breakfast at McDonald’s and did some small shopping in the last shop/restaurant area before we went into the shop-less rural areas.

Thanks to the morning rain cooling down the air and keeping clouds above our heads, we didn’t have to deal with terrible heat and sunshine while we were walking through residential area streets and main drive ways in the suburb without anything to shade us from the sun.
Today’s only 5 % of the route was natural trail, only Meki Toge pass 女鬼峠. Since Kumano Kodo Iseji starts from Naiku and Geku shines of Ise Jingu shrines, this Meki Pass is considered as the first “walking over mountain” on Iseji, if you start from East side. (The route we took yesterday over Mt. Asama is not a part of Iseji) This mountain trail part was only 2 km and the it is not hard at all.

Once we passed the Meki touge pass, the world around us transformed into a super countryside village. It is really amazing to see the complete change. But even in those remote villages, we never have any problem finding vending machines for cold drinks.

With only 1 km left till the guesthouse were we are staying tonight, a sudden late afternoon shower started (as usual). My feet really hurt after walking on concrete all day. We knew we had to carefully plan ahead so we can get food for tonight. We checked and there should be a small grocery shop right by the guest house. We consulted google maps to make sure it is open on Sunday. When arrived at our guesthouse at 3:45 we dropped by the shop first to get food.....just to find the shop was CLOSED.

It had all the shutters and blinds down and closed.It looked like it may have gone out of business for good probably due to COVID or something. After this disappointing turn of events we went back to the guesthouse. Later I found out this shop closes every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month.

I literally crashed on the floor of our bedroom in the guesthouse, which is a huge, like really huge, traditional Japanese old house. The inside of the house seems all renovated, quite recently. The shower room and toilet are all pretty modern. The washing machine was a new model front loader with built in dryer.

Before dragging my exhausted body to another grocery store 1 km away from here, we double-checked google maps and found salvation!
There is an Izakaya called “NOGI” only 4 min walk away. We even called them to make sure they opened tonight.

NOGI was a super nice and happy surprise, all food served there was incredibly good and the prices are kind. The couple who owns it is very friendly. We really enjoyed our excellent dinner there while we chatted with them for 2 hours. We highly recommend NOGI to anyone who is staying in this area. Since they do lunch time too it is a great option if you are just passing through.

Day 2: Iseshi station to Ise Jingu Geku shrine, to Meki Toge pass to Tochihara area.
Distance: 27km. 95% asphalt paved roads and 5% mountain trails.
Acoomodation, Guesthouse Tea Field Villa
Meals: Breakfast at McDonald’s, Lunch from Family Mart convenience store and Dinner at Izakaya “NOGI”

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