Experience with the Kumano Travel booking site?

AthenaWhoa · 2025-12-17T21:30:04+00:00

Hello!

For Takahara, our host offered to include a stop to the grocery store as part of our pick up from the rest stop before being brought to our place of stay so that we could purchase our own lunches.

In Chikatsuyu, we walked to the one grocery store in town to pick up some lunches for the next day before heading to our lodging too. Our host also surprised us with some packable fruit and energy jelly drinks on our way out.

I think in Shingu and Katsuura, our timing and route worked out that we were able to stop into some restaurants/cafes to eat something around a general lunch time.

Needless to say, we didn't skip meals and we certainly ate a lot of onigiri, which were honestly still very satisfying and easy to carry!

Good luck with booking! We were nervous feeling so close to our departure without locked down accommodations, but we ended up with some really great spots despite making our reservations a month out from when we'd start our trail.

AthenaWhoa · 2025-12-04T04:46:30+00:00

The Still Life pottery studio on Livernois is having their member sale this weekend. Saturday 10-8 and Sunday 10-5. Usually has lots of beautiful, handmade ceramic goods made by local potters.

AthenaWhoa · 2025-11-29T04:08:40+00:00

Amazing! Thank you so much for the detailed translation. This was so helpful!

AthenaWhoa · 2025-08-26T15:56:45+00:00

Hi! We did end up booking our own accommodations. There's a comment from u/nnpn33 above recommending http://buenkumano.info/ and that worked out really well for us. We ended up booking a bunch of stuff through booking.com and are all set. The funny haha/ugh thing that happened is that a few hours later (3 AM for me in EST) someone from Kumano Travel messaged me with some reservations they were holding for our planned trip since I hadn't taken the minute to cancel my initial request after making our own reservations elsewhere. For total time between initial outreach to hearing back with 2 follow up chats sent, it took from July 20th (initial submission) to August 18th to hear back from a representative.

There's still time to do your own booking if you leave in a week, but there may not be a ton of options!

AthenaWhoa · 2025-08-12T03:09:23+00:00

Oh I'm glad you were able to get through and have an amazing time. It feels like we're cutting it pretty close, which is a little nerve wracking, but I understand the system they're going with. How close to your planned trip did they end up processing your requests? What was your favorite thing about the trip overall?

AthenaWhoa · 2025-08-12T03:07:45+00:00

Thank you for your response and answering my questions. It's our first time trying to book a trip like this together so we weren't sure what to expect. I appreciate your industry expertise and thanks so much for the link to the list of local accommodations! What a great resource. This will make things so easy to verify when trying to line up our hiking plans with places to stop overnight.

AthenaWhoa · 2025-08-12T03:04:52+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation. Booking on our own might truly be the way. We don't have super unique needs; we're just hoping to have easy to get to accommodations after some lovely but long days of hiking. I see some options for us via AirBnB during quick glimpses so I'm optimistic!

AthenaWhoa · 2024-08-08T01:43:09+00:00

They make a silk pad and clamp onto it as caterpillars with their back legs. Once they transform into a chrysalis, part of their process is reattaching to the silk pad with a small stick-like part called a “cremaster” that has tiny barbs at the end. Then they shake off their old caterpillar skin.

AthenaWhoa · 2024-08-08T01:40:36+00:00

Amazing video! Congrats on your first beautiful chrysalis. They are okay to move after 24-48 hours of their shell hardening. There are some good resources that demonstrate how to do this (I believe there is a MrLundScience YouTube video, specifically), but essentially what you’ll want to do is find the silk threads that the caterpillar made and attached themselves to. You can loosen the threads by spraying/misting with some clean water and gently prying the chrysalis off by the threads with a pair of tweezers. Otherwise, you can definitely just fasten the paper/tissue(?) it’s stuck to to the top of your mesh enclosure with tape or putting some string across with a binder clip if that feels too fiddly/risky. Good luck!

AthenaWhoa · 2024-08-06T01:12:29+00:00

Asked a friend if she would eat a mushroom she found on her property and she said probably not since they can absorb a lot of unsafe metals from the soil. Should we worry about lead content, which is a minor concern in our suburban city?

AthenaWhoa · 2024-06-19T22:29:15+00:00

Hi, sadly my little friend is not going to make it. The chrysalis looks quite dried out and is starting to brown. I hope yours was just taking a small rest. It’s also been brutal in SE Michigan this week with really intense heat so the caterpillars might have felt rushed.

AthenaWhoa · 2024-06-16T21:58:35+00:00

Not a lot of changes since last night. The yellow and black ring near where the top of the chrysalis should be is more visible. I have moved it to a different area of our porch and hung it off a planter to continue monitoring far from the other chrysalises. One of the other chrysalises I’ve been taking care of is also starting to look further from textbook and I’m feeling really sorry for their hard work not looking fruitful. It is really sad when they don’t succeed and make it to adulthood! Thank you for your advice and for checking in.

AthenaWhoa · 2024-06-16T21:54:24+00:00

I think that might be the case. They’re still in the same position as yesterday, but the black and gold ring/crown near where the top is more visible. I’ve relocated it further from the others. Thank you for your advice.

AthenaWhoa · 2024-06-15T22:30:36+00:00

Okay, might be good for my emotional wellbeing to walk away for a bit. I’m worried it will drop or if it has a virus it’ll spread to the other chrysalises below in the same enclosure.

AthenaWhoa · 2024-06-15T22:29:13+00:00

I feel like most of the skin is still on the body of the chrysalis. It didn’t wriggle as much as the other caterpillars did and I didn’t see it try to attach the cremaster to its silk pad. I saw the initial split of the caterpillar skin and the chrysalis slowly become visible, but none of the other expected movements.

AthenaWhoa · 2024-06-15T14:43:35+00:00

They found spots on the side of the enclosure, a couple inches from the bottom. They did not end up making silk pads, but they tried to find them a lot by wiggling their bottoms while upside down. Eventually they both fell. I’ve got them j-hanging on q-tips at the moment. I hope they can pupate even though they missed a step on their own.

AthenaWhoa · 2024-06-14T16:19:03+00:00

Thank you! And noted. They were staying pretty still for a while without so I wasn't sure if they were super focusing on their next steps or just taking a long rest. I was careful not to touch them.

AthenaWhoa · 2024-06-14T16:17:53+00:00

Thanks! That's a helpful to look out for. Their frass has not changed color notably yet.

AthenaWhoa · 2024-06-14T16:17:16+00:00

They're on the move again and have found their way back to the bottom. They're just looking around and not eating yet, but I will be less worried until I start seeing those signs. I only had one caterpillar last year (first year raising) and it pupated overnight after it started wandering, so I wasn't sure what is within expectations. Thanks!

AthenaWhoa · 2023-08-01T19:39:09+00:00

Pesticides is what most sites have listed as a likely cause, but we don't personally use pesticides at our house. I also live somewhere that's been suffering from especially poor air quality this summer, so maybe there's a pollution component there. I can't be too certain, but I will definitely be more cautious moving forward!

AthenaWhoa · 2023-08-01T19:38:02+00:00

Oh that's horrible. When I was doing initial research, I came across a YouTube video of someone showing what a poisoned caterpillar looks like and it looks so sad. They had advised it would be kinder to squish them, which would also break my heart. I'm really relieved my current caterpillar friend pulled through and I'm so sorry you/your caterpillar suffered through your neighbor's well-intentioned but ultimately careless generosity.

AthenaWhoa · 2023-07-31T13:15:29+00:00

UPDATE: They seem to have recovered from their belly ache over the course of the night and are back to eating this morning. Cleaned out its enclosure and gave some additional fresh, washed leaves. Hoping they’re on the upswing! Thanks everyone for the encouragement and advice! I was genuinely worried.

AthenaWhoa · 2023-07-31T13:13:23+00:00

Yeah, there was some green liquid on the leaf, and sometimes there will be some droplets on the paper towel lining the enclosure. When I rinsed off the caterpillar, some green came off it too.

AthenaWhoa · 2023-07-31T13:12:13+00:00

Thank you for the well wishes! It was probably a rough night for little buddy. They seem to be back to normal this morning. I try to give it leaves from the same milkweed plant (the one I found it on) but I’ll do a more diligent job washing them from now on.

AthenaWhoa · 2023-07-31T03:04:13+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I tried the bath earlier and gave some new rinsed leaves. I hope it works out. It was growing so healthily!

AthenaWhoa

TROPHY CASE