May 15

Today we went took the Kumano Kodo route to Nachi Falls. Unfortunately, my gym shoes were not in the best condition due to the rain from the previous days, so I had to wear my Converse to climb the mountain. For a brief minute the thought of hiking up the mountain was unpleasant, but the thought of getting the exercise appealed to me quickly. I didn’t know this before, but Kumano Kodo is a pilgrimage route. These days, it’s a popular hiking trail in Japan for both Japanese people and tourists. As Professor Hoffert was saying, that is how they traveled back in the day. Not going to lie, when that was said it motivated me to keep going. I have a lot more privilege than those people did, and I do exercise on a regular basis so the difficulty isn’t anything my body isn’t used to. The modernization of this trail is the fact that is viewed as another hiking trail for some. But I think it’s always good to remember the history of the grounds you are on. Something I noticed about Japan is that a lot of its modernization has to do with the fact that it is a hotspot for tourists. I’ve never walked a pilgrimage route before, but it’s safe to say that this one was amazing. It wasn’t an easy walk, especially considering the shoes I chose to wear, but the view was most definitely worth the increased heart rate and sweat.


As we got higher in altitude, the view only got better, and after many many many steps, we made it to the top. This is probably one of the best views of the trip by far. Several of us gathered and spotted ice cream. We saw unique flavors and it was probably one of the best decisions we made that day. We got brown sugar candy flavored ice cream and it was absolutely amazing. We walked around more and Caroline and I ended up getting more of that ice cream! We made it to the waterfall and it was beautiful. I would love to come back here to take in the view and appreciate the people who took the route in more difficult conditions. Something that being here made me realize is that modernity can be an annoying trait. I wonder what some places would look like without the tourists. I’m not ignoring the fact that we are also tourists—I just think it was harder to enjoy some places because it was so packed. However, to think on the bright side of things, it’s great that so many people have come to appreciate all these places just like us. Another aspect of the cross between tradition and modernity that I noticed is the little souvenir shops. A lot of them sell traditional style things that we would use today, such as accessories for our phones and T-shirts. And when we bring these products home, we are making our environment more traditional! A different perspective of looking at it.


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