Last September I travelled from Osaka to Tsu by local train along the coastline. My itinerary is much less busy than a lot I've seen, but there were definitely some out-of-the-way gems along the way that I can recommend. All my hotels were in the region of €30-€50 and I was lucky enough to have one of the old JR Rail passes.
Osaka (Dobutsuenmae station) –> Wakayama station, 1hr22 minutes
There was a great little shabu shabu place in the station: さん志ち
Hotel: Wakayama Urban Hotel €36
Side-trip: Wakayama —> Musota
Visited 直川観音本恵寺 Naogawa Kannon Honkei-ji Temple and then walked up to a little shrine I'd found on Google Maps that turned out to be a) in the middle of nowhere and b) very much like somewhere you might find in a Ghibli movie (creepy, old, beautiful, and utterly deserted): 出世不動明王 Shusse Fudo-Myo'o Acala Buddha (note: this is what Google Maps says, not the actual reading of that Kanji)
Wakayama —-> Kii-Tanabe, 1h44
Hotel: Hotel Hanaya €36 (looks like it fell out of 1950s Texas)
Visited 鬪雞神社 Tokei Shrine and Tanabe Bay
(It was here that I realised I'd misplaced some very important medication so my side quest the next day was to go to a Japanese hospital in the middle of the Wakayama countryside and get some more)
Kiitanabe → Kushimoto, 1h30 minutes
Hotel: Hotel Wakayama-Kushimoto €45
A beautiful old ryokan, make sure to get the hotel shuttle from the station
The onsen was on the 5th/6th floor and they had an outside bath with views over the bay – I had the whole place to myself
Kushimoto → Nachi, 43mins
Took a bus up to Nachi Falls 那智の滝 which was the first really busy place I'd seen with a lot of overseas tourists, but it was stunning and well worth the visit. I also walked up the four millions steps to some of the temples (like Seiganto-ji 青岸渡寺) which is on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage route.
Nachi → Shingu, 18mins by train, but I missed the last train and took a bus instead
Hotel: Gran Hotel €41
Stumbled on this place 新宮市営橋本水野墓地 Shingu Shiei Hashimoto Mizuno Cemetery on my way to get food. Nice, deserted, so glad I was wearing mosquito spray.
Shingu → Owase, 1h21mins
Hotel: Hotel Viora €50
Went to Hachiman Shrine 八幡神社 and Sengen Shrine 浅間神社, both of which were made immensely more interesting by the woman I walked up with who went up every day to feed all the stray cats. Also Magoshi Cemetery 馬越墓地 and Kongoji Temple 金剛寺 were beautiful.
Owase → Tsu, 1h30/2h30, depending on the train
Hotel: Sanco Inn Tsu Ekimae €46
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I also want to flag up that I'm chronically ill, in case someone is searching this subreddit for easier itineraries. Also I speak Japanese so I can't comment on any English-accessibility, but I did meet the odd tourist on my travels and they seemed to be doing okay with only Google Translate, but mostly it was me and the locals ^^
Lastly, if anyone is searching for medical help in Wakayama, shout out to the Centre for International Relations at Wakayama Medical University, who directed me to a hospital where I was able to get new medication.
Comments and questions welcome!
by SoundDefiant4816
