Kii Peninsula (Mie + Wakayama) — 7 days, car
A loop from Nagoya around the Kii Peninsula to Osaka: Ise Jingu and the Ise-Shima pearl coast, the Kumano Kodo with Nachi Falls and Kumano Hongu Taisha, Mt. Koya’s temples, and Shirahama’s beaches and onsen.
Don't miss
the shojin ryori dinner at your Okunoin temple stay.
- Day 1 — Nagoya → Ise: Ise Jingu (Naiku + Geku, Japan’s holiest shrine) → Okage Yokocho (drive ~2h). Stay Ise. — Route map
- Day 2 — Ise-Shima full day: Toba (Mikimoto Pearl Museum, birthplace of cultured pearls), ama diver huts, Ago Bay cruise (pearl rafts), Kashikojima (drive ~1.5h). Stay Ise/Toba. — Route map
- Day 3 — Ise → Kumano Kodo (UNESCO pilgrimage trail) → Nachi Falls (133 m, Japan’s tallest) + Nachi Taisha + Seiganto-ji (pagoda beside the falls) (drive ~3h). Stay Nachi. — Route map
- Day 4 — Nachi → Kumano Hongu Taisha (UNESCO) + Oyunohara (great torii in the riverbed) → Yunomine Onsen (Tsubo-yu bath) → Kawayu Onsen (river bathing) (drive ~2h). Stay Kawayu (tattoos: ✅ friendly (private tub); ✅ friendly (river bathing)). — Route map
- Day 5 — Kawayu → Mt. Koya: Kongobu-ji (head temple), Danjo Garan, Okunoin cemetery (night walk) → temple stay (shojin ryori) (drive ~2.5h). Stay Koya. — Route map
- Day 6 — Koya morning (Okunoin, Kongobu-ji) → Shirahama (Wakayama coast): Shirahama Beach, Senjojiki rock, Engetsuto (moon-shaped island), Shirahama Onsen (one of Japan’s three oldest) (drive ~2.5h). Stay Shirahama (tattoos: ✅ Saki no Yu friendly). — Route map
- Day 7 — Shirahama morning (onsen/beach) → Wakayama Castle (one of 12 original castles) + Kishu Toshogu (Tokugawa shrine) → return to Osaka → evening shinkansen (drive ~2.5h). — Route map
Highlights
Local food & drink
- Ise udon — Japan’s softest noodles in a dark tamari-sauce pool
- Tekone-zushi — Ise-Shima’s hand-mixed bonito sushi, the ama-divers’ fast meal
- Akafuku mochi — Ise’s iconic since-1707 red-bean rice cakes
- Shojin ryori — Koyasan’s vegetarian temple cuisine
- Ise-ebi — spiny lobster, sweetest Oct–Apr
- Kishu umeboshi — Wakayama’s plum pickles
- Iseman sake — Ise’s only brewery at the Naiku gate
- Kishu umeshu — Wakayama plum wine
- Kishu mikan juice — fresh tangerine juice Don’t miss: the shojin ryori dinner at your Okunoin temple stay.
Local culture
- Ise Jingu — Japan’s holiest shrine, rebuilt from scratch every 20 years in the shikinen sengū rite, so the architecture is perpetually new yet ancient
- Ama divers — the female free-divers of Ise-Shima have harvested abalone and pearls for over a thousand years, and you can watch their working huts
- Kumano Kodo — the UNESCO-listed pilgrimage trail that has drawn emperors and ascetics for over a millennium, walked to the great Kumano shrines
- Kumano Hongu Taisha — the great shrine whose Oyunohara torii rises from the riverbed, one of the three sacred Kumano sanzan
- Yunomine Onsen — the Tsubo-yu bath is a UNESCO-listed stone tub where pilgrims have purified themselves before the shrines for centuries
- Mt. Koya shukubo — staying overnight in a temple, joining the monks’ dawn prayers and the ritual meal offered to Kobo Daishi, is a 1,200-year-old tradition
- Okunoin cemetery — the night walk through mossy lanterns toward Kobo Daishi’s eternal meditation is Koyasan’s most moving ritual
- Shirahama Onsen — one of Japan’s three oldest hot springs, named in the ancient Man’yōshū poetry anthology