Adventures in Japan - The Nakasendo Way
Our tour of Japan started in Tokyo, moved to Takayama in the Japanese Alps and next up I’m talking about the historic Nakasendo Way – the trail between Edo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto.
From Takayama we took a scenic bus journey through river valleys, passing dams to Matsumoto, famous for its castle, with an original tower dating back to the Edo period (1500s). It certainly has an imposing presence and earns the nickname ‘Crow Castle’ for its dark, foreboding features, although the surrounding moat, red bridge and backdrop of the Japanese Alps makes it very photogenic – remember to check it out after dark as well when the floodlights somehow make it all the more striking.
Matsumoto was the start point for the Nakasendo for us and the following morning we took the train out to start the walk, heading back towards Narai, a town the train had just come through. As these things go, a 5 minute train ride is about a 3 hour hike, especially if more than half of it is uphill and you have to have quite a lot of 'photo' stops. The scenery was beautiful, walking through pine, cypress and larch forest, and we detoured for a couple of shrines en route. The red torii and the fox guardians, often wearing little red bibs, never got boring! Having climbed up to the pass I lost count of the number of times we said Konichiwa as we passed people, most of whom were Japanese. You would often hear them before you saw them as walkers tend to carry bells – I thought this might serve some sort of pilgrimage/religious purpose but it was actually a warning to bears…think I’d have preferred the former!
On arrival into Narai about 3pm we realised we were staying in a movie set. It was like something straight out of Shogun, an Edo town that has been carefully preserved and is really visually arresting. We nearly went straight past our accommodation, a traditional ryokan, as people were taking photos of it! Echigoya is signposted in Japanese only and has been a post-town inn since the Edo period, so over 230 years, operating continuously. This was our first taste of a ryokan and although I knew about removing outdoor shoes there were more pairs than anticipated. On entry into the vestibule you take your outdoor shoes off and step onto the floor that is raised above the ground. Then there were slippers as we went through the building before we reached our room. The (paper) doors slid back and then you take your slippers off (I was literally hovering my slipper-clad foot over the threshold when I realised that was wrong) and you step onto the tatami mats in your socks.
We were then served tea at a very low table with seats (like chair backs with no legs) by the lovely owner, who thankfully spoke excellent English. He explained about the baths, asked what time we'd like to eat (we settled on 6:30 as evening meals tend to be done by 7:30) and then we went back out to explore the town. Narai is beautiful and very much under the radar as we discovered upon visiting Tsumago and Mugame, more well-known post towns.
On returning we each went and had a very relaxing onsen bath (in this case it's a private bath but it can be shared in some places) and then got ready for food. We wore our yakata (long dressing gowns you wear over underwear or PJs that are ubiquitous throughout Japan) and luckily we’d been told to make sure left is over right as the other way is reserved for corpses. Then you hold this closed with an obi (belt) which goes round the waist for women or hips for men and ties to the right. Dinnertime! This is a set meal, and always beautifully presented in small dishes. Normally there’s something pickled, something boiled, something fermented, something fried, occasionally (as in this case) some tempura and then always miso soup and rice to finish. Once we'd finished eating he turfed us out into the second room, gave us some salted Japanese pears and made up our futons in the main room. Bedtime tends to be early, but then so is breakfast and in the countryside you tend to be moving on pretty early, so you settle into the routine quickly.
After the early morning wake up we moved into our second room to allow our host to return the bedroom to a dining room in time for breakfast. I was convinced this would be a bad idea considering the amount of food we ate the night before and the fact all we'd done was sleep but it turned out we ate most of it although I learnt the hard way that seaweed sheets are not supposed to be eaten alone...
We took the train to the next post town, Nagiso, to pick up the Nakasendo, walking just over an hour to reach Tsumago, one of the more famous post towns that often gets used in films due to its lack of cables etc. To be honest, we both thought Narai beat it hands down, but then it was a lot busier...as we hadn’t been walking long we didn't really stop other than to buy and eat stuffed buns AKA oyaki.
We then had a relatively arduous 6.5kms walk largely uphill – I needed a lot of breaks as I was finding it tough carrying a bag, even though it wasn’t that heavy. The scenery was attractive as we wound through woods and there were a couple of lovely waterfalls (Otaki and Medaki, male and female) to distract me for a bit. On arrival into Magome there’s a great viewpoint and you follow the stream down into the town, a bigger version of Narai and Tsumago – I think the weekend meant it was busier than usual but I can see the attraction, it’s in a gorgeous setting and the stream runs all the way through, with traditional buildings on either side, so it is pretty special.
Our ryokan tonight was quite different as it's a fair bit larger and has a dining room. You select your bath time and we went early as we wanted to get cleaned up. Our room was quite small, with thicker futons already laid out. We were at the end on the corner so had a double aspect which was great for photos. Dinner (another set meal) consisted of sushi, tempura, tofu in a couple of styles for me, sesame, sweet pepper, carrot and potato, miso broth, fermented soy beans, apple and pear (salted); Rich had some beef, pork and chicken dishes.
After breakfast we made our way to the bus stop and headed to Nakatsugawa train station, about half an hour away. From here our limited express train took us to Nagoya and then onto our first shinkansen (bullet train) – very exciting but it only took 35 minutes to reach Kyoto, our next stop on the Japanese adventure!
