28 May, Sunday
A day of many firsts!
Up early and after a 7am brekky we departed the hotel with our day packs laden with enough gear for a 10 day adventure. We left our main bags in the capable (and efficient) care of the hotel staff.
So begins our Nakasendo Self Guided tour.
Subway to Tokyo central rail station, then navigated
our way through the maze to the bullet train platform, the Shinkansen to Nagoya... lots of people in the station but train not excessively full. The bullet train travelled at up to 250km/h, a very pleasant way to travel.
Then a local train to Nagano (Nakatsugawa), and a bus to Magome.. arriving there at lunchtime-ish. The town is a historic and quaint mountain village/post town and was teeming with local tourists plus a number of foreign hikers too. After a noodle lunch we walked up the hill through the village and left most of the tourists behind at that point.
The path was created/used in 1603-1868 during the Edo (?) period and was one of 5 major routes, this one linking Kyoto to Tokyo for the Shogunate... there were over 69 post towns along the 533km route.
We walked 8.3km to Tsumago along with lots of others going both directions. The walk was through Bamboo and Japanese Cedar forest with warnings of bears. There are bells provided along the trail to 'ring a warning/scare them'. Some of the surface was laid stone work. We arrived at Tsumago at about 4pm and wandered through the pretty village to meet our hotel shuttle at 5:10pm. Just as the shuttle arrived a tour company guide turned up (the only one we would see for the 10 days self-guided tour) and handed us an information sheet and verbal warning on Leeches!!! Due to a very wet forecast for tomorrow the leeches are likely to come out, fangs bared! The sheet listed some of the ways to avoid contact... not to exhale!!, and not to vibrate, or make a noise!!.. may make for interesting walking, not sure how that's going to work with 18km hiking to cover!!
Our shuttle took us to a Ryokan/Inn in the hills, rather flash which places us a bit out of our depths. Had a many course meal tasting a whole lot of things; Carp fish, boiled horse intestine, whole river fish, rice ball, eel, different mushroom/vegetable, plus lots of unidentifiable items! Part of the dining experience, we were in a room with 4 tables and 4 lots of people but all partially curtained off from each other by hessian hanging curtains.
Back to our rooms to find our blinds closed and futon beds laid out on the floor. Now for an Onsen... another first... which (luckily) had lots of written instructions for westerners. Segregated, naked, soaking in very hot water with pre-wash procedures. The soak was lovely, the etiquette is the scary part!!
The whole time in the hotel we are wearing Yukata gowns, it is the thing to do :). There are different slippers for everywhere: inside slippers, outside balcony slippers and special toilet slippers.
Getting out of Tokyo on the train we could see Mt Fuji in the distance and once out of the cities there were larger looking houses and seemingly every gap of land was growing rice or vege, or being used for solar panels. The countryside is very green with hardly any development on the hills which are covered in Bamboo or trees.
29 May
It's wet.... very wet, as predicted. So after a breakfast of flat fish and tofu, heated on your own gas table cooker, and lettuce, eggs, radish, miso soup, and … lots of other items (mostly identifiable, but not all!) we took the hotel shuttle to Magiso station. This meant we missed the first hour of todays scheduled walk.
Still pouring rain so made the executive decision to continue by train to Kiso-Fukushima where we stay for 2 nights. The hotel kindly took our bags on arrival, we filled in until check-in time by walking around the town which has lots of historic areas. Lots of temples, and a river walk... beside a very high-running and dirty river due to the high rainfall today. Interesting train ride to here with lots of hydro electric plants along the river valley, being fed largely from side river flows entering the main river.
Grabbed a toasted sandwich for lunch in a great little café, our first western type meal and a relief after horse intestines and flat skewered fish :)
Once we checked in we immediately utilised the Onsen, which was very quiet for now. Beating a tour group which is booked, they were on the same train as us and their luggage is all stacked in the lobby.
Dinner was lots!! A very fancy hot dish to cook over the burner, a chicken and mushroom mix. Lots of little appetizers, salmon (raw), buckwheat noodles, miso, little plates of vege (pickled etc) and a gelatine type dessert. Tomorrow as the rain is meant to be cleared we have decided to train back to Magiso and walk the hike we were meant to complete today.
30 May
Yay, the sun is shining so walking the trail we were meant to do will work well. After a breakfast of multiple dishes; Rice, Miso, noodles, slaw, fish, pumpkin, salmon and bacon n egg cooked over burner... we were fortified.
Caught the train back and after a coffee and bread buying exercise in Magiso we followed the trail up through some of the town. Lots of gardens, rice and corn plots, and flowers. Up through forest with pockets of housing and gardens in between. This included a flash looking house with a Maserati parked in the garage (compared to all the tiny cars otherwise that you only see). Also past some Yurts, maybe a glamping AirBnB venture?
It was rather hot and a lot of sweating going on. We wound our way through paths, passing one tour group and meeting 4 others going the other direction. Predominantly American's. Getting to the top through a valley via a valley of steep sided wooded hills, no bears but lots of warnings and bear bells. At the pass a quick stop and a quick calculation that if we walked the final 7km fast we would make the 2:52pm train... so off we raced, all downhill on a paved road and we were in plenty of time to catch the train.
Back to the hotel via a big supermarket so that lunch is all sorted for tomorrow. A green tea and an Onsen to recover... bliss!
Today's walk was over the Nenouetouga Pass, a 14.7km walk. No leeches seen, just a hairy caterpillar (could you write a book about that??), we did see our first livestock however: one sheep, a few cows and some ducks (in their own fenced small pond, didn't bode well for their long term existence).
Wagyu beef, fish and lots of other items for dinner.
