Nakasendo and Kiso Road: Day 2

Here we go again...

After a satisfying breakfast at the minshuku, (the young Japanese chap did not show up for breakfast, poor thing...maybe we should have offered him ibuprofen yesterday), we set off for a 1.6km walk to the nearby post-town of Tsumago.  

We arrived before 9am on a Sunday, so the place was deserted, allowing us the chance to take some quiet shots

Some obasan (aunties) were opening up their shops but stopped to chat with each other on the slow morning

The souvenir shops of Tsumago still offer many of the same items that they have sold to the travelers back in the Edo and early Meiji periods - laquerware boxes, handcrafted children's toys, oiled paper umbrellas, and medicines made from mountain herbs.

This probably served as a rest area for travelers during the town's heyday

Each post-town had a honjin, an officially appointed inn for dignitaries, and a waki-honjin, a secondary accommodation in case of overflow of dignitaries.  Tsumago had an excellent waki-honjin that served as a museum to showcase the function of the place.  During the Tokugawa shogunate, the family who owned this place was one of two heads of transportation business in the town

The seat in front of the fire with a small wooden platform for resting the legs was given to the male head of family because it was the warmest seat.  

This table was constructed for the visit of Emperor Meiji when he toured Nakasendo in the early 19th century.  Apparently, the local carpenter had never seen a raised table, being used to the traditional Japanese ones, and wrecked his brains to come up with this design which did not use any nails.  The Emperor sat on it for 20 minutes while having his tea.  The inscription at the bottom of the table described the visit of the Emperor.

A special toilet was made for the Emperor, too.  It was never used.  Trust the Japanese to make everything look elegant.

Tsumago produces an annual version of the traditional notice board "newspaper" used during the shogun era.  This one is for 2016, showing the Rio Olympics.  

After that surprisingly entertaining stopover in Tsumago, we continued our way at around 10am as we had a good 20km to cover before 5pm.  The last train leaves Nojiri station at 5:32pm for Kiso-Fukushima where our accommodation for that night was located.  Miss that, and we would be stranded. Yup, that was good motivation to get moving.

More Nakasendo signs

Sometimes the trail is a village with proper paved roads...

...sometimes it's a path in the woods...

Toilet stop.  Cleanest mountain toilet I've seen.  Of course.  It's Japan.

We were given short 5-10 minute breaks based on YL's estimation of how we did in terms of distance covered.  Often we just plopped down on the ground wherever that may be, even on a bend on a motorway, grateful to rest our wobbly legs and snack.

What's smaller than a village?  A hamlet.  What's smaller than a hamlet?  A settlement.  We passed through several hamlets and settlements on our walk.  At this one, the two old ladies were super-impressed by our kids for walking the Nakasendo.  So am I, obasan... so am I.  

Many of the villages/hamlets/settlements are involved in small-scale agriculture

Rice paddy fields on the way up to the Nenouetoge Pass

We made it to the pass at 2700 feet!  It's marked by a toilet :)

Aaaah....we can rest! And snack!  

Some parts of the trail were strewn with the vestiges of autumn.  Generally the kids did well, with Sophie often leading the pack, and Ju trailing waaaay behind.  Some amount of scolding and threatening did happen in order to get him to catch up.  

WE MADE IT to Nojiri station with 1 hour to spare!  21km in 8 hours - woohoo!

The most appreciated vending machine of our whole Japan trip.  Having skipped lunch and sustained our energy with chocolates throughout the day, we gleefully consumed the tubes of chips from the machine while waiting for our train to arrive.

The train from Nojiri station took 30 minutes to reach Kiso-Fukushima station, where our ryokan has sent a van for us.  It was such a relief to step into the small but elegant place that was reminiscent of the ryokan at Nozawa-onsen last year (still the best ryokan so far, according to Julian's rankings).  Civilisation! 

Though we could not wait to check out the onsen, we decided to first take care of our yucky selves and growling stomachs, and then savour it *after*.  

We couldn't walk properly - you should see Ju! - and grunted each time we had to sit down or stand up, but the onsen and fantastic dinner at Koma no Yu ryokan outside of Kiso-Fukushima made everyone feel better.  The kids are fussy eaters but they were happy with most of the food served at all the places we stayed during the walk. 

Our luggage sent by Takyubin 2 days ago arrived, and was waiting for us in our room.  This service is magic! 

Nakasendo and Kiso Road: Day 1

The highlight of our trip to Japan this year was not the Universal Studios nor the Kyoto temples, but the Nakasendo.

A mention of the Nakasendo (中山道) to a Japanese will either yield a surprised "Eeehh, Nakasendo!?" or a puzzled "Eh? Nakasendo?", with a 50% chance of each.  Needless to say, it is hardly known to foreigners outside of Japan.
 　
The name refers to the 533km road which stretches from Tokyo to Kyoto, and wanders on and off paved, civilised roads into the mountains as a narrow path of dirt or hiking trail.  Though various parts of the road has been in existence for more than a thousand years, the Nakasendo came into prominence in the 17th century, after the Tokugawa shogunate established its capital in Edo (Tokyo) while the nobility remained in Kyoto, the old capital.  The shogun forced the regional daimyo (feudal lords) to move periodically between Edo and their domain every alternate years (sankin kotai "alternative attendance").  During the time away from Edo, their wives and heirs were required to remain in Edo as hostages.  There were checkpoints at each of the 69 official post-towns on the route to prevent wives from escaping or guns from entering Edo.  The expenditure necessary to maintain lavish residences in both places, and the costs of the procession to and from Edo also put financial strains on them.  All these prevented any thoughts of rebellions or coup d'etat and secured the shogun's power over the feudal lords.

Over the years, commercial activities rose in tandem with the traffic, and many forms of accommodation, eating places and entrepreneurial shops were set up along the way to cater to travelling merchants, pilgrims, members of the imperial court, country doctors, etc.  Today, some parts of the route retained its Edo period atmosphere, such as Narai, Magome and Tsumago, all of which we visited as part of our 5-day walk.

We tackled heart of the Nakasendo, the 100km Kiso Road 木曽路, but only walked 50km of it and covered the rest of the distance by train or local busses over the 5 days.  After sending our luggage ahead of us to our accommodation on Day 2 in Kiso-Fukushima, we set off from Kyoto with a day pack with a change of clothes, toiletries, camera, guidebook, cash, passports, soft toys (the kids), watercolour set (me), snacks (YL), etc.

All ready to start our 5-day walk!

Our walking instructions for Day 1 from Magome 馬籠 to Tsumago 妻籠.  

While the trail is quite well-sign posted and can be done without any guides, we signed up for a self-guided walking tour with Oku Japan, a UK-based specialist in off-the-beaten-trail walking tours of Japan.  They helped us to secure accommodation, and provided walking instructions and maps, and a local contact in case we need any emergency help along the way (we didn't).

We armed ourselves with the Japan Rail Pass, more for convenience than the savings (we barely broke even).  If you are planning on moving around Japan during your visit and will make use of several shinkansen (high speed train), it's definitely worth checking them out. 

Reservations are not essential especially if you are travelling off-peak season or hours.  But they are free if made with the JR Pass, so why not?  Each time you do so, the clerk at the ticketing station will stamp on the small space on the bottom of the card.  For such a high-tech country, Japan still has a lot of manual, personalised and old-fashioned ways of working.  For example, when we were asking for train timing at the ticket booth, the ticketing agents would refer to a thick printed directory that listed ALL trains and their schedules instead of using the computer.  It's amusing in an endearing way. 

From Kyoto, we took a train to Nakatsugawa 中津川, where we then boarded a bus headed for Magome 馬籠, the start of our walking trail.

A quick lunch at Magome before setting off.  The lone customer just left as we entered this shop, but it's at a very strategic location at the start of the trail, and the soba prepared by a hunched-over grandmother were not bad at all. 

Gohei mochi - skewered pounded rice dumpling doused with various sauces - is a popular snack along the Kiso Road

Fire fighting the old way - the start of the trail at Magome

Magome

Sophie was giving us walking directions 

Such bells were put up throughout the trail and hikers are encouraged to ring them such that bears will remain in their comfy homes deep in the woods and refrain from scaring clueless walkers like ourselves 

Sometimes the trail was developed... 

...usually it was well-used...

...and well sign-posted.

The only bits of autumn we came across during the entire 5-day walk.  I was so excited to be out and walking that I stopped every 10 minutes for a photo while blocking out YL's grumbling in the background whenever that happened. 

This resthouse was in the middle of nowhere, in a forest clearing halfway between Magome and O-Tsumago.  It is common to find hoshigaki, persimmons that are strung together and hung from a balcony, on houses along the Kiso Road.  After they are dried, they are eaten as a sweet snack.

Inside the teahouse, it was nice and warm, heated by a wood-burning stove and a traditional irori (sunken floor hearth).  The middle-aged gentleman who looks after the place invited us to sit and poured us hot tea, and then told YL that he has a beautiful wife.  These mountain sages were full of wisdom, aren't they?

The resthouse 

Yatta やった! We made it to our minshuku, a traditional family-operated bed & breakfast for Day 1, in O-Tsumago お妻籠, 6.5km from Magome in 3 hours

Maruya Minshuku has a charming irori in the front of the house.  There are only 9 guest rooms upstairs, and 2 shared bath downstairs.

The bathtub is made of cypress wood from the Kiso Valley.  The wood from this area are particularly prized.  

We were so glad to sink onto our tatami rooms and rest those worn-out legs. 

Ju discovering the verandah outside our shoji (paper sliding doors)

The best thing about traditional Japanese B&B (minshuku/ryokan) are the meals (besides the baths).  This one did not disappoint. Everyone including the kids wolfed down everything gratefully.

During the dinner in the common dining room, we made the acquaintance of a lively, young Japanese chap who was also walking the Nakasendo.  His legs were exhausted, and you could tell from the winces, grimaces and grunts that every movement of his legs were an agony as he struggled to sit and stand.  He cleaned off his dishes quickly, and bid us an early evening (he looked like he really needed it).  We were glad the Doctor recommended us an ibuprofen to ward off the aches.

Upstairs rest area and an imposing guest

Looking forward to Day 2!