Kumano Kodo

Sometimes life experiences happen when they happen just because they are meant to be. Me hiking the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail in the mountainous Kii peninsula of Japan was one of those.

The Kumano Kodo trail has been hiked for thousands of years, first by aristocrats and then by everyone else in search of a deepened sense of self. Those who undertake the arduous journey have been referred to as “pilgrims.” There are two pilgrimages in the world registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site; Kumano and the Way of St. James in Spain. The entire seven trails of the Kumano take a few months to hike. The portions of the trail that my friends and I hiked, the Nakahechi route and the Kochehi route (the most difficult part of the Kumano Kodo), took one week. These parts of the trails take you past the Three Grand Shrines of the Kumano (Kumano Hongu Tasha, Kumano Nachi Taisha, and Kumano Hayatama Taisha). Visiting all three is thought to bring good luck to your past, present and future lives.

Of course I didn’t know the specifics about any of this when I received a call from my friend Susanne. ----

---So, I’m putting together this group to hike the Kumano Kodo and I thought of you because of your spiritual side. It’s an off the beaten path walking tour and…

--Well, it’s on my vision board. I have to do it.

And indeed, on my vision board was a spiritual journey.

So, I didn’t ask a lot of questions… In fact now thinking back on it I didn’t ask any questions – which was probably a good thing. Questions or no… I was in for the adventure.

Susanne put everything together. She and two other friends were flying to Japan from New York. I would be flying in from Detroit. We would all meet at the airport in Narita. From there the bullet train to Kyoto where we met 8 other “pilgrims”, our leader and then started our journey.

As usual, there was a lot going on at the office. I was trying to keep up with the emails coming across about the Kumano, buying stuff on Amazon Susanne told me to buy, but truth be told, just scrolling through getting the highlights and then moving on to finish what I needed to at work. Because one of the emails said something about breaking in new hiking boots, I started wearing my new hiking boots around the office. A classy look attached to silk stocking legs and a blue navy suit I must say. Maybe my spiritual journey started earlier?

Anyway, the first day on the Kumano, we began our journey at Takahara to Chikatsuyu (approximately 6 miles). Elevation gained 1650 feet. It was steep… very steep. In the first 100 yards of us hitting the first trailhead on our first day I turned to my other three companions and said, “Is anyone else having a WTF moment right now?” I broke a capillary in my left thigh that first day. Kinda reminded me of Michael Phelps and blood cupping in the Olympics I proclaimed in the onsen later that night. The onsen was the hot mineral springs where everyone soaked our aches and pains away and surprisingly it truly did soak our aches and pains away… But yet… given the way the journey started I had my doubts as to whether I could finish…

I couldn’t sleep that first night, or many nights thereafter not being able to make the switch from US to Japan time I was up roaming the ryopans (traditional Japanese inns) at 3 in the morning… Thinking about lessons learned…

Because we were hiking, we couldn’t drag our suitcases behind us of course. We had to carry what we would need for the next few days. Our guide did have pity on us and modified the criteria for our group, hiring someone to take some of our stuff ahead for us. But when you have to carry something on your back over mountainous terrain in a backpack after having two shoulder surgeries and wrist surgery you become very circumspect about what it is you truly need. And truth be told, we don’t need much in this life. For me, it came down to my warm fluffy socks, my long sleeve Detroit shirt, sweat pants so I could sleep comfortably. Anything else was just going to weigh me down and be a burden. And isn’t that what many of the material things in our life are about anyway?

But yet, I did need essentials. I needed my vegan protein bars. I needed my water. Both were heavy. But I needed them. And that was a burden I was going to have to live with.

At one point while hiking on a narrow path with a steep drop off to our left and trees all around, a hiker in front of me slipped. Out of instinct, I reached out to help. An experienced hiker behind me said, ---- Pat don’t ever do that again. You can’t help her and if she goes, you go. If it’s your natural instinct to reach out and help, then it’s not safe and you need to move. I moved. I heeded the advice to keep plenty of space between myself and the others.

On the last day of the Kumano Kodo, we hiked 15 miles. It was the most physically and emotionally challenging. There are three peaks of over 1000 meters, or over 3280 feet. To put it into perspective, as one of my fellow pilgrims said, it is like climbing over the height of the Empire State Building (1454 feet high to its tip) twice in two hours, then starting over again, and again. On prior days, it had become evident that of our 12 pilgrims, we naturally clustered and walked with those who fit best with our hiking abilities; fast, medium, or slow. I fell into the medium group. On that last day though a fellow hiker asked for help at the beginning of the hike and I obliged and then waited. At the top of the hill, I was chastised by our guide.

---- Pa-treeee-ceee-a… you cannot wait… You must go… The others have gone… You have a long way to go… Go… Go now… I will wait… YOU go… You go now…

I had no idea. And so I started hiking, and climbing… and climbing… and climbing… and climbing. And he was right. The others with whom I normally hiked were gone. And I did have a long way to go… for two hours at a 45 degree angle. It took me a long time to catch up. Elated when I finally saw my group ahead on the trail I wanted to cry because I finally caught them but also because I didn’t’ know if I could continue to keep up with them. I had just expended a tremendous amount of energy to get to them and we weren’t even half way through the day. And out on the trail. It’s all up to you. It’s yours, Pat. It’s your experience. It’s your life.

Lessons learned: Like it or not, there are certain essentials in life I will need to carry. I need to figure out what those essentials are. What non essentials are there in my life (material, emotional, otherwise) weighing me down that I can remove from my backpack? Sometimes even though it’s my natural inclination to help others, there are times I am not in the best position to help them. They will fall and I will fall. And that doesn’t do me or them any good. This is true particularly when there is another trained person available. Do not take on a role that is not mine to take on. And if I do decide to take on a role that is not mine, accept that I will have to work harder to make up lost time on my own path that awaits me. Do not resent or blame the other person I chose to help as it was my choice after all.

So many more lessons learned on the Kumano Kodo… more maybe later… have fun with whatever discoveries await you in 2017!

Patricia Nemeth received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She earned her Juris Doctorate and Masters of Labor Law degree from Wayne State University School of Law. She is the founding partner of Nemeth Law, P.C. which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2017. Patricia decided to start a personal blog because she wanted to write about topics other than the law.