08:23 – 09:39 Take the train from Kumano to Kii-Katsuura station

Kii-Katsuura 紀伊勝浦 is very small town. Most of the shops and restaurant have not opened yet in the morning. So I don’t get many choices and I just find a Cafe randomly nearby called「果樹園」for my breakfast. 

Pizza toast set ¥1000

11:05 Take the bus to the Matsuri venue

After having my breakfast, it’s time to get on the bus by 11:05 at the bus stop outside the train station. 

11:30 Walk up the stair to the venue

After getting off the bus stop which I indicate on the map above, you can see the entrance on the way where the bus coming from. Walk up the stair and you will be arriving the venue 1 of the Matsuri.

Actually, it’s been raining since the morning of that day. I saw some filming team walking down and wrapping their gears with plastics. I doubted if the festival was going to be canceled. 

Anyway, let’s first go to the top and see what’s going on.

11:45 Watch other activities of the festivals

Arrives the venue 1 on the above map. Activities other than the fire Matsuri have already started, e.g. 大和舞、那智の田楽.

After that, I took a walk nearby. Actually, it’s a very pleasant countryside place worth to come even when it’s not a festival day.

I heard that it’s even more beautiful when it comes to Spring, the Cherry Blossom season.

It was rainy but thanks for that, it made a mysterious fog surrounding the mountaintop.

But there were not many places to explore. You can take a look at the viewpoint that I marked on the map. where you can take a photo of both Nachi waterfall and 三重塔.

13:00 Arriving the venue of the fire festival

The activities of the festivals take place in a different venue which is slightly apart from each other. While the “real” fire festival is held in Hiroujinjya飛瀧神社 (Nachi Waterfall那智の滝), venue 2 on the map.

The fire festival starts at 14:00. But I arrive at 13:00 just for getting a closer location to watch the festival and the pictures. 

You can go to restaurants nearby which I marked on the map for lunch first. But I go straight and headed to the venue to wait for the festival to start.

14:00 The fire festival started

It turned out that I really did get very close to the performers. It was just a few meters from them. I can even felt the heat of torches. I saw some Japanese people used their hand to touch the torches(maybe it means something LOL) and I did the same thing. It was fun.

15:00 Returning to train station

After the fire festival, there were still activities of the festival continued but most people will not stay to watch them. And then you can follow them to get to the exit. After that, just get back to the bus stop where you got off in the morning.

On the way there are souvenir shops, feel free to going inside and take a look. Don’t worry about if there will be long lane waiting for the bus. Coz many people are driving by themselves to come. 

Moreover, the convention has arranged buses to get visitors back to train station. You can get on one of them when you see the word 紀伊勝浦 or 那智 station is showing on the front of it.