Kohechi – Day 4 – Omata to Koyasan

· by · in Kumano Kodo. ·

  • Kohechi route

  • Day 4 – Omata to Koyasan, 16.8km

  • Accommodation: Rengejo-in Temple, Koyasan, ¥12000 including Shojin-ryori dinner and breakfast

Breakfast was at 7am and considering it was the last day and only 17km, I wasn’t in a hurry. Kakizoe-san, Ting and I all had breakfast together then decided to walk together to Koyasan. This was the easiest of the four stages with probably 50-60% along roads and not such a big climb. We took our time chatting the whole way and it was a really enjoyable day. It definitely gets lonely sometimes walking by myself and I really appreciated the company. Funnily enough, Ting hadn’t seen any snakes on either the Nakahechi or Kohechi (and I’d been seeing them daily) so we told her to lead the way, and not long after, she screamed out saying she’d just seen one! We came across a hut and picnic table in a small village called Otaki and had our lunch there in the sunshine before pushing onto Koyasan.

New friends, Kakizoe-san and Ting
Road walking on the Kohechi trail between Omata to Koyasan
Road walking on the Kohechi trail between Omata to Koyasan
Signs along the road alerting drivers of hikers walking the Kohechi trail
A post-box in a tiny village on the Kohechi trail
A delicious and filling lunchbox (rice balls, tempura and grilled salmon) from Minshuku Kawarabi-so
New friends, Kakizoe-san and Ting
Kohechi trail

We said our goodbye’s in Koyasan and I checked into my Shukubo temple accommodation at Rengejo-in. It’s Golden Week so it’s bustling with local and foreign tourists. I’m hoping to stay 4 nights so I can do a few more walks around the area, but the Shukubo association here told me that everything is booked up for the rest of the week…  There’s 52 temples with accommodation and other guesthouses and ryokan’s so I’m sure something will work out.

My room at Rengejo-in Temple in Koyasan
Reflections at Rengejo-in Temple, Koyasan
Afternoon meditation is in session at Rengejo-in Temple, Koyasan
Goma-dofu, a Koyasan specialty at Rengejo-in Temple, Koyasan
Sanskrit characters created in the sand at Rengejo-in Temple, Koyasan

In my opinion, the Kohechi trail needs maintenance as well as more waymarks, but considering the amount of rain the region gets (which triggers the landslides), it seems like it would be an impossible task to maintain the trail. Rainy season is in June and typhoon season is in September so it would be a pretty constant job to be  fixing every landslide that happens. The ascents and descents of the first three days were all very steep and would be slippery and dangerous in wet weather so I wouldn’t recommend walking this trail in bad weather/after a lot of rain/in June or in September.

3 responses to “Kohechi – Day 4 – Omata to Koyasan”

  2. Hi Kat, enjoying your journey hope you found accomodation sure you would have … so the reason you stayed 4 nights there was to do more walks and sounds like it is an interesting place too???… thinking of doing these trails in april next year just concerned on how wet it would be then to do the kohechi Trail do you know??? sounds like you have been there another time…. Sandy

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    • Hi Sandy,
      Koyasan is definitely worth at least one or two nights and ideally one whole day just for Koyasan, a half day for the loop trail and a day for the Choishimichi. April can be hit and miss with the weather, sometimes May is better, but the rainiest times of year are June (rainy season) and September (typhoon season). I definitely wouldn’t recommend walking the Kohechi in bad weather and would recommend speaking to the Tanabe Tourist office before you go to try and get any updated information on landslides and the trail condition.

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