After 26 hours of travel and a nights rest my pilgrimage begins.
The Kumano Kodō is made up of multiple pilgrimage routes, and my first day is at the end of the Kiiji route, then I continue and in six days complete the Nakahechi route. Most of these poems start in the Japanese form of Waka or Tanka.
With a loose 5 line structure of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables . The music you hear is a duet of Japanese instruments, the Koto harp and the shakuhachi flute
On the Plane
Nico from Colorado
obsessed with Japan
4 years furiously learning
gathering Japanese friends online.
Going to meet
on-line girl friend
At last.
The bullet train to Osaka
Smooth, silent, fast
Flashing past houses touching houses
Suburban boxy apartments
Now Rice paddie gardens.
Mount Fuji in the distance.
Kiiji Day and Stay
Train station breakfast
buy lunch snacks
Onigiri stuffed rice triangle
wrapped in Nori
opt for tuna mayo filling
Trains are like swiss watches
perfectly on time
Waikama change,
Shimizu Ura
The walking begins.
Through the village
Up the hilly path
through the forest,
looking back
densely packed houses
Highways overhead.
ready for quiet time
Big blue butterflies
jumping insects
birds singing
small altars with fresh flowers
protect travelers.
Earth, rocks and slippery mud
I slide and fall
Good, from now on
more caution and care
walking alone needs full attention
My first bamboo forest
young brown pointed ones
among the tall green adults
how long have they stood
reaching for the sun above.
Sweet forest smells
maybe jasmine or orange blossoms
as I reach a road.
Dear Martin Strasmore
Welcome to Fujishiro-Jinja Shrine
I’m surprised
A guide waits for me
sent by Oku
shows how to honor the shrine
how to bow, ring the bell
and make a prayer.
This is the Shinto way.
In Gongendo Hall
Three Buddhas look out at me
Nachi, Hongu, Hayatama.
Shinto Kami are spirits
maybe they all wait
for my understanding
to blossom
as I follow pilgrims’ path
I get blessed
with paper peacock feathers
my first walking day is complete.
My first futon sleep
deep sleep, alarm needed
First truly japanese meals
delicately delicious
rice as a delicacy
Sashimi at night
cooked fish in breakfast.
Barley green tea.
ONSEN
Yunomine Onsen
three hundred years still purely
delightfully local
Old cedar bath water so hot
i sit by cold water pipe.
my meal is delivered
kimono lady brings tray
carefully placing
each of the ten artful dishes
to create colorful array.
Once again delicious
Ecstatic foody experience
completed with plum wine
Nakahechi Route
The Cedar trees are tall and straight
The leaves are a slippery carpet.
Hearing the rushing water
and the singing bird.
Keep your eye on the path
and your feet on the stones.
White butterfly fly past
brown and red butterflies flutter
around me.
brown and red snake slides
across the path.
lizard pops brown head out
irredescent turquoise tail
makes its debut.
Leaves moving in the wind,
feet moving on the path,
water flowing down the stream
all is quiet, just keep moving.
Echizen-toge Pass: the poet Fujiwara (1162-1241) said “this route is very rough and difficult: it is impossible to describe how tough it is.”
You think you’ve reached this summit and you have,
you go down, then up again and again
not quite so high but high enough.
Then you discover
the higher pass
leaving a long downhill
for your tired legs
before rest can be reached
Dropped my hat,
see it down the hill in the middle of the road .
She walked right past it.
I had to go back 10 minutes
passing her and wanting to say
you could have called out.
New bamboos shooting
up in the cedar forest
which species will win?
Triangular stones point the way
like ancient arrow heads
before the rough edged rocks and stones
take over the path again
before the climb up
between the closely woven roots
covering the path
like an unfinished carpet
Going downhill is a meditation
on each stone on each step,
as the brown snake glides across
finding a place to lie in the sun.
Sometimes this feels like a cosmic joke,
you go up,
you go down
you go flat
then you go up and up
and down and down.
Then you reach Nachi
the temple
at the end of the trail,
400 steps up to heaven!
©MartinStrasmore2025
