In the footstep of the ancients

3-4 April Nakatsugawa

Today we travel across to Nakatsugawa to commence our walk in the footsteps of poets, emperors, samurai’s and merchants past along the ancient Nakasendo Way trade route which connected Edo (Tokyo) in the east, with Kyoto in the west, via a direct inland route following the river valleys through the mountains. Again we are cheating. The Nakasendo way is about 200km long, but we only have four days of walking, so we have picked the eyes out of it, and will walk 4 discontinuous section, using public transport to get between sections.

The sun is shining for our arrival in Nakatsugawa, so we choose, despite there being a steep climb involved, to walk the two kilometres to our ryokan, Nagataki Lodge, but about three quarters of the way there, the hotel bus drove past the other way, and upon spotting us, the driver took pity and stopped to pick us up, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Whilst we mumbled to ourselves that we were quite happy to walk, the steepness of the last little bit made us secretly thankful.

The bus delivered us to a welcoming party that included the owner (who was also the chef and general dogsbody), and a lady who took us to our room and showed us the ropes, part of which was to kit us out in yukatas and teach us how to wear them properly. Tucked in tight at the top for women, so there was “no peeking” from men, and robes generously overlapped and tightly secured for men, so there was “no peeking” from women. It was all very amusing, but it did fill in some gaps in our knowledge of yukata technique and etiquette. Just as our ardent attendant was about finishing up, our proprietor, who had an air of mystery about him, magically reappeared, to check how we were faring and to advise that our dinner would be delivered to us in our room progressively through the evening. Our room wasn’t a room as such, it was an unbelievably quaint little 200 year old thatched cottage, set in a beautiful garden on the side of a hill about 100 metres away, via a bumpy old undulating path, from the main building and kitchen. Over the course of the evening, the wait staff made at least six trips backwards and forwards to deliver our meal, which was very nice. We felt like royalty as we sat on the floor at a low table, tightly trussed (no peeking) in our Japanese robes. As soon as the final course was consumed and the table cleared, our man of mystery reappeared with his attendant to lay out our futons and put up the shutters.

I believe that this establishment is alternatively known as the night crow inn. I have my suspicions that the inn takes its name from our omnipresent gentleman. He has lived for centuries and by day he manages the inn, but by night he patrols the skies.

Breakfast followed a similar process to dinner, except that there were less journeys involved. The Night Crow was there again taking down the shutters and making sure we were comfortable. He also asked if we would like to take the hotel shuttle bus to the start of our walk today, but because it was only a couple of kilometres, and downhill this time, we said not to bother. Come time to leave though, and the bus was sitting waiting. It turns out there were another couple of Australians staying and starting their walks at the same time as us. The Night Crow insisted that we should catch the bus with them and we obeyed. Our walking trip today commences at the Nakatsugawa railway station from which we climb steeply for about 8 kilometres to the post town of Magome-Juku and then further up the hill to the Magome-togo pass and then down the hill again to the post town of Tsumago-juku, about 17 kilometres all up. Our Australian friends on the bus however were starting their walk at Magome-juku and just doing the 10 or so kilometres to Tsumago-juku. Needless to say, 5 kilometres into our 2 kilometre trip to the station, we realised that we too would be starting our walk from Magome-juku. Oh well, at least it means our first day will be an easy one.

Magome was quite beautiful, with the main cobbled road climbing up the hill with deep, well formed stone gutters either side containing a swift running stream of water coming off the mountains and driving little waterwheels intermittently placed. Beautiful gardens, gorgeous old wooden shops and houses and beautiful views made the scene idyllic. A lovely little café behind one of the waterwheels, which served very nice lattes made for a perfect start to our walk. I couldn’t be happier, who cares if we missed a bit of the trail. When we reluctantly tore ourselves away from Magome and coffee, the walk progressed very nicely. It was quite steep up to the pass, but nothing too challenging, and the beautiful scenery along the way meant you didn’t notice the steepness anyway. At the pass I noticed in the distance a nice piece of scenery which required the zoom capabilities of my camera to properly frame. So I lifted my hand, to which my little camera case is always attached, but alas, it was not there. Somewhere between coffee and the top of the hill the camera and I had parted ways. So we turned around and retraced our 4000 odd steps back to the café in the hope that it was lying on the track somewhere waiting for me to find it. No such luck unfortunately. So we wandered back up the hill. Despite the beauty of the place we had started our walk somewhat inauspiciously. About half way up the hill there was a little café. I decided to pop in on the off chance that the camera had been handed in. Once I got my message across, the lady behind the counter went out and checked, but came back apologetically to say that the camera had not been handed in. A bit more gloom set in and I wandered off cameraless and despondent, to recommence what was now a trudge up the hill. I had only gone about 20 metres when an old man came out of the café waving his hands and calling out to me “camera?”. He obviously knew something about my camera, but language proved too big a barrier to understand just what he knew, and google didn’t help. One of the gentleman’s translations came back as “go to the front of the shop and I will kill you”. I am pretty sure that is not what he meant. Eventually I got the sense that he was telling me that someone had found the camera and was taking it to the tourist information centre in Tsumago. I thanked him (or maybe threatened to kill him) and continued on our way.

I regained a little bit of a spring in my step, but remained less than confident of being reunited with my camera. But the rest of the walk was very nice, and our step retracing meant that we regained the 8 kilometres lost earlier in the day, and we got to see some really nice things three times. Upon arriving at Tsumago (another beautiful post town), we made a beeline for the information centre. The lady behind the counter checked, but there was no camera to be seen. But an old man also behind the counter pricked up his ears when he heard a camera mentioned. It appeared that the old man who was going to kill me at the café had rung ahead to say we would drop in and that a tour guide had found the camera and was going to bring it to them, but it wasn’t there yet. We thanked them, left and said we would come back in an hour, but again, we had only crossed the road when the old man run across with my camera in his hand. It seemed that it was handed in just as we left. I was overjoyed, and we had a lovely time exploring Tsumago. Moral of the story. When in Japan, always ask the crusty old man sitting on the sidelines. They know everything. It really is absolutely delightful the extent to which the Japanese people go out of their way to be helpful.

From Tsumago, we could either take a bus the 4 kilometres to Nagiso station to catch a train along the river to Kiso-Fukushima where we were staying tonight, or walk to Nagiso. As a penance for my misadventures, additional walking was prescribed. The rest of the day went smoothly. The walking was nice, and the train trip along the river was delightful. All in all a topsy turvy, but very satisfying day.

4-6 April Kiso-Fukushima

Today we catch the train back to Nagiso to recommence our walk. From here we can either take the pleasant 10 kilometre stroll along the river to our destination in Nojiri, or the more difficult, but probably more scenic 16 kilometre path up over the hill and through the Nenoue-toge pass. Cleary I still have a little bit more penance to serve, because the longer path it is. But very nice walking, albeit steep at times, through bamboo forests and along mountain streams makes the kilometres zip by unnoticed.

From Nojiri we catch the same local train back along the river as we did the day before to Kiso-Fukushima, arriving early enough to allow a little look around town before dinner. Kiso-Fukushima is also a post town along the Nakasendo. Not quite as beautiful as the smaller towns, but still well worth the wander. Beth did spot a little sign on a bridge over the river pointing the way to a hiking trail up to the mystical and highly sacred Mount Ontake, but thankfully the 40 odd kilometres and 1000 metres of ascent would make us late for dinner, so we kept looking around town instead. Mount Ontake is also an active volcano, which got angry and killed 63 people in a 2014 eruption. Another good reason to stay away.

The next day we are on the train again. This time to Yabuhara further upstream, where we start our walk uphill (of course) to the Torii Pass and then down to the beautiful town of Narai. The weather is not particularly kind today, very cold and intermittent rain, so despite the very steep climb to the Torii Pass, the coats stay on and sweat glands decide to take a holiday. Nonetheless it is a very nice walk. More bamboo forests, mountain streams, an atmospheric mountain top temple and a very nice downhill run through forest into Narai. One good thing about the cold is it is keeping the bears indoors rather than hunting for honey and tourists. Part of me would love to see a bear, but the larger and more sensible part of me would not. Despite bear bells on posts every kilometre or so, and copious warnings as to their presence, I suspect that the bears are smart enough to keep away from the trails. The warning signs suggest that bears will keep away if you make a constant noise. So chatter is encouraged. Beth will be fine, but I don’t fancy my chances.

Narai is another beautiful town and poster child for the Nakasendo way, so it is quite surprising that even though we hit town before midday, the streets are largely empty. Perhaps the standard tourists don’t venture out in inclement weather in these parts, or maybe they just rise late on a Sunday. Whatever the reason, we enjoyed having the place (relatively ) all to ourselves.

7-9 April Karuizawa

After a couple of pleasant hours in Narai, we have quite a long train journey out of the quaint Kiso valley we have inhabited for the past three days to Karuizawa in the Japanese snowfields, where it is that the beautiful people seem to go. Interestingly there is a pretty strong European influence here. It appears that in the late 1800’s, Kariuzawa was promoted as a summer resort (by a Scottish/Canadian Anglican Minister no less) and was something of a magnet for European expatriates in Japan, and to this day it seems to retain that summer resort for Europeans feel, with a distinct Japanese edge.

Our last day of walking on the Nakasendo way takes us 17 kilometres from Karuizawa up over the Usui pass and then a long, sometimes steep descent into the small village of Yokokawa, from whence we catch a bus back to Karuizawa. The scenery is quite different to the Kiso valley, and would be stunningly beautiful in Autumn, with its many deciduous trees. It is still beautiful in early spring, but it is that bleak after winter beauty that doesn’t appeal to everyone. A constant companion on the way up to the Usui pass is brooding Mt Asama, another active volcano, which is apparently not averse to spewing hot ash over the countryside and laying it bare. It kept quiet as we walked past, but infuriated Beth because she could not find a spot to get a clear shot of its snow covered flanks which were shining white in the sun. Then when we reached the pass and got a clear view of the mountain, it hid itself in clouds. Very poor behaviour, but certainly preferable to it spitting at us.

On our way down the hill, we happened upon an older Asian lady who had taken a minor tumble. We had encountered her earlier at the hotel, where she demonstrated some interesting an erratic behaviour. After Beth ensured that she was ok post-tumble, she asked us whether we had seen the bus. This quite concerned us, because we had left the only town with buses about 2 kilometres earlier and the next bus was 10 km away. We feared that the old lady was not of sound mind and had followed the wrong track and got lost. But as we started to advise her that she needed to go back, and prepared to help her retrace her steps uphill to the bus, she pulled out her walking notes, which showed a picture of an abandoned bus somewhere on the trail. I am still not convinced that she wasn’t a little crazy, but at least she knew where she was going and was determined to get there. We wished her well and moved on. We did find the abandoned bus about 2 kilometres further on.

The trail on the other side of the pass, and out of reach of Mr Asama, was quite different and covered in very old forests, and lots of jagged rocks. Quite beautiful. Once down the bottom of the hill, which seemed to go down a lot further than we climbed up the other side, we had a very pleasant walk along an old rail trail into the town of Yokokawa. We had intended finding coffee here while we waited for the bus, but neither we nor google could find anything even remotely meeting our needs, so we sat and shivered at the bus stop for an hour.

We also struggled when we got back to Karuizawa to find a decent coffee shop, which given the European influence, struck us as odd, but we took what we could get. For all its apparent wealth, the Karuizawa shopping strip seemed a bit tawdry.

The next morning we had an 10:00 train to catch, so after a nice breakfast we made our way down the tawdry shopping strip to the station, which by now we knew quite well. Because we had half an hour to spare we decided that we would wander down to the other end of the station which remained hitherto unexplored by us. To our surprise, just beyond the station was an enormous modern shopping plaza, with all the top labels and more high end shops than you could imagine. Importantly, and sadly, there was no shortage of coffee and cake options which looked excellent, but we had no time to sample their wares. How could we have imagined that the rich and famous would come here without such amenities.