Over three days I walked from Kumano city on the coast, through the remote mountains of Kumano to Hongu, and then finished off with a hike along the Nakahechi-do trail.

On the first day I passed an old couple preparing their paddy field for the planting. In some parts of Japan there are two plantings per year, and in some just one. As you might expect, there is a lot of manual labour involved in owning a rice field. First of all, there is the red tape. You can’t just grow rice, you need to have the correct paperwork. After that, there is a lot of maintenance throughout the year to keep it free of weeds, etc. Most people own rice paddies that are near to those of their neighbours, so if they don’t maintain them properly, it affects their neighbours too!

This trail is less walked and less well-known than the Nakahechi-do, so many locals asked where we were headed. They were always extremely polite and friendly.

From the coast we entered the mountainous Kumano forests. Small wayside shrines known as Oji are placed at regular spots.

The attention to detail is one thing I have always loved about Japan. Even the wood is neatly-stacked, almost like it will be entered into a design competition!

The terraced rice paddies at Maruyama are something special, and now a mini tourist spot in their own right. They were created over several hundred years.

The warm climate of Wakayama and Mie make it one of the best places in Japan to grow oranges or tangerines. Here they are being sold in a ‘mujin-hanbai’ stall (honesty box stall).

It was my first time to stay at the newly-built Organic Hotel Kiri-no-sato Takahara. Constructed by Wakayama Prefecture, it is run by Jian Shino. He is from a local family and his father was involved with the development of nearby Shirahama Hot Spring on the coast (often referred to as Japan’s Little Hawaii).

The new inn has been beautifully built out of wood with huge beams arching over the central hall. Each guest room has a spectacular view of the valley and mountains beyond, and they have both Japanese and western style beds. The food, as the name suggests, is organic and locally-sourced.
Jian’s father was also a francophile, and when Jian was born in January, he took the French word for January – janvier – to make his name. Jian speaks English, Spanish and Chinese as well as his native Japanese.

Organic Hotel Kiri-no-sato Takahara

Jian Shino, the owner of Organic Hotel Kiri-no-sato Takahara

Corridor the guest rooms

Organic locally-grown ingredients are used in the beautifully-prepared meals

Hagi itself is a lovely town – and well worth a day or even two to explore. The size of the town lends itself to being explored by bicycle, since there is so much to see and what there is is laid out in quite a wide area. While many Japanese towns have small preserved historical areas, the island on which central Hagi sits has many interesting areas, with a multitude of historical and preserved buildings.

Map of Hagi in the Edo period

Hagi is known in Japan for its beautiful pottery known as Hagi-yaki. Dedicated exclusively to tea utensils, it is highly-prized by masters of the tea ceremony, second only to Kyo-yaki from Kyoto. Walking around the old central part of Hagi you come across many small shops selling Hagi-yaki, whilst many of the actual kilns are located in the hills surrounding the town.
I visited an old house at the southern edge of the town, bounded on one side by the Aiba waterway. The house was constructed so that the kitchen was open to the waterway, and water flowed in to allow vegetables to be washed and water drawn.
Another wonderful feature of the town are the walls; beautifully constructed many were made from roof tiles held in place by clay.


Even though Hagi is so remote (there is no direct train from Tokyo, Osaka, and several changes are required), it is played a large part in Japan’ history. No less than four of Japan’s Prime Ministers came from Hagi, in large part because of the part they played in the tumultuous Meiji period after Japan ended its period of ‘sakoku’ (closure) in the mid-1800s. Ito Hirobumi was Prime Minister four times and studied under the intellectual Yoshida Shōin who became a thorn in the side of the Tokugawa Shogunate for trying to start a revolt. He wanted the Emperor to be restored and for Japan to become strong so as not to be added to the West’s list of colonies in Asia. Both his wishes became reality after his death.
The Hagi-oukan is a three-day walk, and on the first day, I struck out from Hagi south, crossing the river and heading on to a small road between many lovely houses. Patches of snow lay everywhere, for Yamaguchi is on the Japan Sea coast and gets a healthy amount of snow each winter.





The trail leads up a valley, and into the low mountains that hug the coast. Groves of bamboo were blanketed in white, and I met an old couple, evidently in their eighties, tending their small farm that was covered in 30cm of snow.
In the dead of winter, not a soul was on the trail, but I suspect even in the peak holiday season there are few people who walk here. My first stop was the small town of Sasanami, known for its tofu. I stayed at the only accommodation, the Hayashi-ya ryokan, which is both a ryokan and a restaurant specialising in… tofu.

Hayashi-ya ryokan

The ryokan is now run exclusively as a ‘one group per night’ ryokan. In effect it is a private ryokan, catering to one group of people from one to eight per night. The price rises the fewer people, and there are 2 rooms used for guest accommodations. However you have the complete accommodation to yourself in the evening, once the owners have finished clearing away your evening meal and retired to their separate house.

The beautifully-restored building has a sweeping view over the valley below; rice fields and a few farm buildings stand against the forested mountains beyond, which catch the evening sun.

Meals are served in the main living room, on a table made out of an antique door. The cuisine is heavily reliant on locally-sourced ingredients; home-made soya milk made from local soya, locally-grown rice and fish that are reared behind the house.

The exclusivity of having your own private ryokan is really something that sets it apart. You feel like a spoiled child with the space, comparable to a large suite, and the personal service. It marries the luxury of an exclusive five-star hotel with the warmth and friendliness of the Japanese countryside. The hosts speak some English and talk at length about their move from Osaka; refugees of a sort from the stressful world of being a university professor.

As dusk falls, the mountains beyond glow red. The view itself here is worth the journey. The journey by car is straightforward, but by train you will need to be picked up at the nearest station by the hosts.

Suisen-an is near Miyama, a lovely village known for its restored thatched houses. Even though this area is a few hours north of Kyoto, it is off the tourist trail and makes a rewarding trip to escape the city. Miyama has also imposed strict curbs on development, rare in much of rural Japan. No golf courses, no hot spring resorts, two types of development that are common in rural Japan and are often the only type of investment in rural communities with little industry and an ageing population. So it’s a bold step, but one that seems to have brought benefits such as the sustainable, non-intrusive tourism that the people prefer.

You can visit Suisen-an on a private tour; speak to us to find out more!

The village of Tsumago is located along one of the best-preserved sections of the old Nakasendo, and has been restored by its residents so that it gives the feeling of an Edo-period village. Starting in the late sixties, the villagers decided to restore their houses, which at that point were in a bad state of decay, and they have set themselves rules to follow so that the village is preserved. However Tsumago is not a museum, it is a living village, and this makes a big difference. As with most Nakasendo villages, it is long and thin, about one kilometre long to be exact. The merchants houses that line the main street are deep and narrow, as they were taxed according to the amount of space on the street they took.
My favourite place to visit apart from wandering past the small shops, is the waki-honjin, which was the accommodation provided for the daimyo’s retinue. Inside the wooden building you can see an irori (sunken hearth) and learn where each member of a family would sit according to their ‘rank’. You can also see the walls, deeply coloured by the smoke from the fire but polished to a deep shine up the height of the maids whose job it was.

There are several lovely places to stay in Tsumago, all Japanese-style minshuku run by local families. The evening is for me the best time to wander, as the other visitors have all gone home, and you are left pretty-much on your own. At dusk the lanterns glow and it’s hard to believe that you are in the 21st century!

We visit Tsumago on our Shoguns and Samurai, and the new Nakasendo Trail tour.