Nakasendo and Kiso Road: Day 5

Karuizawa has a connection with Canada via the missionary, Alexander Shaw, who visited in the late 19th century.  He built a summer home there because it reminded him of his hometown in Canada.  Today the area seems to be a popular wedding reception destination, and some sort of writers/artists' retreat.  It bears to note, though, that it stands at the foothill of Mount Asama, one of Japan's most active volcanoes, and spewed hot rocks and a plume of ash just 2 years ago in 2015.  Maybe impending doom is inspirational for writers and romantic for newly-weds?

The wooden Shaw Memorial Chapel is at one end of the town, towards the Nakasendo trail

The Kumano Kotai shrine near the Usui Pass sits right on the border of 2 prefectures, Nagano and Gunma.  There are two Chief Priests representing the shrine for each prefecture, separate rites, amulets, seals and offices.  

The kids made another bid to ask for their wishes

We stopped for a drink at a mountain roadside cafe with a warm covered terrace with a view of the mountains.  This is also the reason that we were behind schedule and had to cheat in the last part of our walk by taking a taxi

But the detour was worth it!

The mountain ranges looked like they were painted

The trail on this day was across paths plushly carpeted with dried leaves and twigs, and enclosed on both sides by barren trees 

This plush...

We came across this abandoned bus somewhere off the trail, and a couple of abandoned buildings including several schoolhouses.  Ask us for our impressions of this area when we meet...

Ju's energy levels lasted him throughout the day, and he chatted non-stop with Sophie who was regaling him with stories of the activities for each level of the primary school years

Not kidding about the leaves...

The last part was downhill across rocky terrain but Ju kept his balance surprisingly well, given that he fell down 9 times throughout the 5 days 

At the village of Sakamoto, we realised that we would not make it to the Yokokawa station in time to catch our train bound for Tokyo, so at YL's insistence, we dropped in to a local community center and asked them to help us call for a taxi instead.  I would have walked the extra hour and took the later train...

That's the last station of the trail!

The slowcoach made it!

Gradually the train took us past this scenery...

...to this in Tokyo.

Et voila!  We completed our mission of walking the Kiso Road with the kids in one piece.  We had an amazing experience, a great workout, and some fantastic memories as rewards.

Here's the full stretch of the Nakasendo.  We tackled the middle portion of it, starting from Magome near Nakatsugawa, to Yokokawa. 

Nakasendo and Kiso Road: Day 4

Thankfully, the skies cleared up in the wee hours of the morning, and we could enjoy Narai without fiddling with umbrellas and wet things.

Iseya minshuku

Narai gives the feeling that one has stepped back in time to the Edo period.  Old wooden buildings with latticed doors, narrow overhanging balconies and eaves, names of ryokans and minshukus engraved on ancient wooden placards above the entranceways.  

The streets were deserted that morning, too

There are 6 original water fountains that supplied water to Nakasendo travellers over the ages.  Long-handled bamboo cups are used for drinking from these public cisterns. 

The village retained its Edo flavour

Another look at the village without the village bums above

This is real

This was to be a slack-off day, as we decided to take a 5-minute train ride instead of walking for 1 hour.  Yeah, essentially the whole 5-day walk could be covered in a 2-hour train ride, don't you know?

So we had time to explore the village, but the villagers were nowhere to be seen.

So we went to the local shrine and cemetery.  No one there, either.  Living ones whom we can see, anyways.

Finally, we settled for some drinks at a cafe, the Matsuya Sabo.

The place was run by an old couple, Imai-san and his wife, and their 2 toy poodles, Chopin and Piano.  We ordered the tea and coffee, and matcha cake - yummy!  

It felt like your grandmother's home with knick-knacks and mementos 

Imai-san was dressed was dressed primly, and very curt.  I asked for a photo and he gave me a gruff shake of the head, but almost at the same time, his wife smilingly obliged with several "dozo" and a bow, to which he turned to her and questioned her grumpily.  I took the shot anyways :P  

He warmed up afterwards, perhaps because he overheard my attempts to chat with his wife in my broken Japanese, and showed us photos of his high-school class reunion in Matsumoto this year, and told us about his friend who had just returned from an extended stay in Indonesia. 

After that leisurely chat and stroll around the village, we caught the train to Karuizawa.  It was bitingly cold and we were not quite sure where we had landed after we exited the station.  

Italy?

Germany?

Austria?

Canada?

Karuizawa *is* really a Nakasendo post-town, but did not retain its post-town scenery due to the 1783 eruption of Mount Asama, and further affected by fires and famine in the following years.  Now it is a popular Western-style summer resort, where even Yoko Ono and John Lennon had visited for 3 consecutive summers.  It also became famous because the current Emperor of Japan met the future Empress at a tennis court in Karuizawa.   

Our ryokan, Tsuruya, was at the end of the town, and a splendid example of turn of the century Western-Japanese decor.  

Many famous writers have lived here for extended periods of time

Our first encounter with a kotatsu, a heated wooden table covered by a futon.  You HAVE to try one of these things in the winter.  It's an absolutely divine feeling to come in from the cold, legs tired from walking, to stretch your legs underneath and just feel the exhaustion melt away...

We were the only ones at the ryokan, as Sophie observed, and had the use of the whole onsen to ourselves.  

Fugu was on the menu that night

Fried fugu

Nakasendo and Kiso Road: Day 3

Woke up on Day 3 to achy legs and joints, and a misty sky.  We asked the ryokan to drop us off at a local supermarket in Kiso-Fukushima 木曽福島 to replenish our snacks, which we had wiped out yesterday during our marathon 21-km walk.  

Kiso-Fukushima, distinct from Fukushima of the nuclear disaster fame, is and was the largest of the post-towns on Kiso Road.  There should be much to see, such as its barriers, but we did not spend any time there save for the stroll while hunting for the train station.  Happily armed with bananas, more chocolates, Japanese snacks and water, we walked to the train station to catch the train to Yabuhara 藪原.  

Beautiful misty morning 

We spent quite a bit of time in the tiny one-man Yabuhara train station, trying to explain to the station master that we wanted to make seat reservations for the next few legs of our journey.  He seemed to be new to the whole idea of the JR Pass (ce n'est pas possible!) so had to make a few calls to colleagues before everything was settled.  

Then it was a walk through the Yabuhara post-town known for its combs made from the Minebari tree (a type of birch native to Japan).  We didn't buy any as most of them were closed, surprisingly.  

The drizzle that started as a playful sprinkle persisted and we thought it wise to put on our rain gear before we start on the trail.  Here's my Hunchback of Nakasendo look.

The trail climbs away from the village onto a forested trail to the Torii-touge Pass, one of the hardest parts of the Nakasendo.  Hmmm....hardest parts involving a steep climb in the rain up to a pass that's 4000 feet high?  This bunch of amateurs have no idea <shakes head> ...

Start of the forest trail.  We didn't take many photos because, you know, rain...cold...slippery...

Dreamy landscape in the forest

I don't think the bears will be interested to come out for a walk in this weather

We reached the rest stop with toilets, heating, dry and warm seats, and a fantastic view of the Narai village in the valley below.  We did not enjoy any of that because it was closed for the winter season.  So we made up our own rest stop and refused to budge even when the Doctor ordered us to get back on track.  

Finally, the torii gate at the top of the pass at Mount Ontake!  This was the only section of the entire 5 days where we had company.  A group of 4 middle-aged Japanese ladies and their guide gave us directions to the pass when we seemed to be lost.  They bid us good luck and descended the hill before we took this commemorative shot.

Signs of snow were everywhere on the mountains

Another rest stop at the site of the former Nakanochaya tea house.  We didn't know this at that time, but this was also the site of a battle between two competing warlords in 1583, and 500 men were buried in the swampy area nearby.  Ignorance is bliss sometimes...

...the above story has nothing to do with this hunchback-turned-ghost of Nakasendo...

Post-town number 34, Narai 奈良井, also known as "Narai of a Thousand Houses" because the street here stretches much longer than those of any other post-towns

The original notice board at one end of the village where the shogun's edicts and other important information for the villagers were posted during the shogun era.

We made the 7km walk in the rain in 3 hours, which was not bad.  The young proprietor of the Iseya minshuku where we were to spend the night looked appalled at this group of shrivelled-and-ghostly-but-happy group of drifters, and must have questioned himself if he was obliged to admit us into his place.  Add to that equation one aggressive father who demanded repeatedly for a toilet for his two kids who could hardly hold it in anymore.  The proprietor calmly informed YL that the toilets were in the annex, upstairs, please-remove-your-muddy-hideous-shoes-thank you area next to our rooms.  This exchange went back and forth a few times but the kids were smart.  They just ignored the men, kicked off their shoes and scrambled straight upstairs to the aforementioned approved toilets.

I was mostly dry, as were my backpack, thanks to my ghostly poncho, but Sophie's one suffered considerably and of course most of our clothes which we were wearing, and which we had to wear for the rest of the hike were wet.  We spent the next 2 hours taking a rejuvenating bath in the common shared bathrooms, and drying out our stuff in front of the portable heater in our room.

Again, the rewards for making it were worth it :)