5 Days on the Kumano Kodo, Walking with a Broken Tripod and a Sketchbook

When I missed the bus at Tanabe Station, I had a feeling it set the tone for the entire trip. The spreadsheet I'd made before leaving had bus times, accommodation check-in times and estimated travel durations all noted down to the minute. It took exactly four hours for that spreadsheet to become useless.

Day 1. Takijiri to Takahara

The mountain trail begins at Takijiri-oji. I'd heard that the Nakahechi route of the Kumano Kodo is well maintained, but I realised on the first uphill stretch that "well maintained" means different things to different people. Thick moss covered every stone step, and the rain from the day before made my footing slippery. The tripod I'd strapped to my backpack caught on a tree branch and bent at the joint. This was only three hours after setting out.

When I arrived at the village of Takahara, the entire settlement was visible through breaks in the clouds. Its nickname, "the village above the clouds," was no exaggeration. I took out my sketchbook and drew the roofline visible through the cedar trees. There are moments when a single pencil and a sheet of paper are enough. I told myself the broken camera tripod actually lightened my load.

Days 2 and 3. Rain

It rained for two straight days. I'd written "alternative route in case of rain" on my itinerary, but the alternative route just meant getting rained on all the same. My backpack with its rain cover felt heavier than usual, and the inside of my supposedly waterproof trail runners was soggy from the afternoon of day two onward.

The owner of the minpaku where I stayed in Chikatsuyu-oji served grilled fish with plum sauce for dinner. The room rate of 8,500 yen included dinner and breakfast. I hung my wet socks in front of the heater, listened to the rain outside the window and sketched from memory the shape of the stone pagoda oji I had passed earlier. When you draw from memory, you lose the details but the impression becomes sharper. It's a different kind of record than a photograph.

On the afternoon of day three, during a brief break in the rain, I took out my vintage camera in front of Hosshinmon-oji. I set it on a stone wall without a tripod and put it on self-timer, but the camera slid off before the shutter clicked. Fortunately it didn't break. I'd bought this camera at a used camera shop in Nipponbashi, Osaka, and considering the time I'd spent on repairs, my heart nearly stopped.

Day 4. Hongu Taisha

When I arrived at Kumano Hongu Taisha, it was quieter than I'd expected. It was a weekday morning, so there were few visitors. Standing before the old shrine building, what I felt wasn't so much awe or reverence as a strange sense of relief. For someone who has walked through rain for three days, a place with a roof is a blessing in itself.

I sat on a bench next to the main hall and opened my sketchbook. This time, instead of the building, I drew a few camellia blossoms that had fallen onto the gravel. Details like these aren't the kind of thing you can write into an itinerary. The things that catch your eye as you walk, that's the real substance of travel, something I forget every time and learn all over again.

Day 5. The Way Back

After spending a night at Yunomine Onsen, I headed to Shingu Station and boarded a train. On the way back to Osaka, I opened the spreadsheet again. Only about half the items had actually gone according to plan. The other half had all been pushed back because of rain, missed buses and sketches that took longer than expected. More often than not, it was in those derailed moments that I stumbled on the best scenes. A plan is a starting point, not a script. The tripod broke, so I set the camera on a stone wall. I missed the bus, so I walked and found roadside stone Buddhas along the way.

Back home in Osaka, I dried out my wet gear and flipped through the sketchbook. Twelve pages. Fewer than photographs, but each one is soaked in the humidity, fatigue and smells of that moment. I still haven't repaired the broken tripod. Honestly, I'm half considering just bringing it as is on my next trip.