Author Archives: boogkb

Another warm perfect day Short walk to hikone castle. Two black swans possibly pictured. Up to the castle: a day without stairs is a day without rice. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikone_Castle QB vetoed the guardian statute. Buckwheat tea is their local drink. Almost … Continue reading →

Another perfect day, almost as too hot! Free day until 18:00 when we join up with the nakasendo way group for an introductory dinner. First to this most excellent temple. No pictures allowed, marking everywhere within the temple, great 1001 … Continue reading →

Another perfect day City tour of Kyoto via oku Japan. Palace First. The palace is open to visitors for a week in the fall and we got in on the last if crowded day. Standard impressive palace keeping in mind … Continue reading →

Rain,glorious rain! Nicely it easier until after all the hiking and step climbing to shrines. Yesterdays ryoken was even more officious than the others. Threw a small group of us out after dinner, no bath or shower in the morning! … Continue reading →

A bit cooler and overcast A bus day visiting shrines. A number of steps, possibly numberless, involved. First, shingu shrine, pictured. One without a thousand steps to heaven. We got to witness a Shinto service, chanting, some sort of ritual … Continue reading →

Similar weather. Walk is to a small rural ryokan, just three rooms, no services. Nice people, first really excellent Japanese bath. Felt very good after a hard days walk. Tough surface today; surface, to me, matters more than ascent and … Continue reading →

Sunny,warm Early breakfast after a night on futons. Hossinmon-oji a gateway to the grand Hongu Taisha. The latter one of the five great shrines.This is a world heritage shrine and the path we are on is marketed with the Camino … Continue reading →

Same weather continues. A bit confused about Japanese bath etiquette. I have been observing the system. Some come in rinse off quickly and then sit in bath washing up thoroughly afterwards. Others the reverse which is how I was taught. … Continue reading →

Sunny a little cooler Subway, train, and then bus to the start of the trail. Several hours of travel to get to there, there being the location of the first Oji shrine, at Takajiri, location of one of the five … Continue reading →

Sunny warmish Mostly a rest and shopping day; saving the feets for the morrow. Out lasting impression will be the density of shopping. Everywhere. Spent time today getting cash. No bank atm would take our card. Headed to a trusty … Continue reading →