Trip 3 - Day 2: Nakasendo from Magome-juku to Nagiso

Our first day on the Nakasendo trail today and it was amazing! We were up and out of our hotel early to catch a shinkansen to Nagoya, a local train to Nakatsugawa, and finally a bus to get us on the trail by 11:50am. Phew!

Planes, trains and automobiles

On the bus with us were quite a number of ahem - non-Japanese - all in their hiking gear, so we expected it to be a little bumper-to-bumper on the trail.

Amazing dango was consumed without TV cameras.

We started our walk at the bottom of the hill in the beautiful postal town of Magome-juku by munching on delicious dango - the same dango, and in the same place, that Lucas, Richard and I were filmed by a Japanese film crew a few years previous (see trip 1!). Ahh, memories! Damn but that dango is good though - I just couldn't resist a second round.

The official start!

And the weather! Gloriously, it was not raining at all, just overcast with the threat of sunshine! We could not have had a better start to the day for walking. Except for maybe some sunshine. We were soon on our way up the hill through the town and snapping photos left and right. The town, beautifully restored and maintained  by the locals, was just stunning.

The beautiful town of Magome-juku.

As we made our way up through town, a steady stream of Japanese tourists surrounded us, only to peter out when we reached the top of the hill and crossed the road to continue up the trail. From this point on, we had only other hikers to contend with.

Only hikers beyond this point.

For a little while, the trail mirrored the road, criss-crossing it back and forth a few times. At about the point that we'd discovered, and duly clanged, our first bear bell, it began to rain - heavy enough to think about our pack covers, but not heavy enough to be bothered getting our goretex jackets out.

Watch out - bears about!

Soon the trail descended into the forest proper, and the modern world dropped away. Surrounded by japanese cedar, interspersed with groves of bamboo, the ancient paved trail disappeared into greenery ahead. The only sounds we could hear were the crunch of our boots on gravel, the burble of the stream down in the valley, and the loud clanging of bear bells from the other hikers walking somewhere ahead of us. We really felt our spirits rise higher and higher as the tranquility of the forest enveloped us.

The ancient Nakasendo in all it's glory

It took us about an hour of steady, and at times steep, up-hill climbing to finally reach the apex of the path - Magome pass - and we were then treated to a long downhill descent to the next postal town of the Nakasendo - Tsumago-juku.

We finally make it to Magome Pass.

About half-way to Tsumago-juku we came upon an old tea house that provides a free cup of green tea (with donation) to weary travelers on the road. The service is run by volunteers and is yet another way the locals of Magome and Tsumago are keeping the spirit of the Nakasendo alive. The old dude running the place was very friendly, and the whole experience really refreshed us (dare i say spiritually? no better not).

Traditionsal tea house. Notice all non-japanese hikers!

A little way along from the tea house the rain really started in earnest and we were forced to grab our rain jackets for the first time. Unforftunately, the rain never really let up for the rest of the walk to Nagiso, but we took it in our stride. As Mitchel has said time and time again - a day in the rain is still 100x better than a day at the desk.

Paddy fields on the way down to Tsumago-juku

As we neared Tsumago, we passed paddy fields and small hamlets, all the while descending into the valley shrouded in clouds. Before too long we were in Tsumago proper, another absolutely beautiful town. We rued our aggressive schedule that would see us at Nagiso by 4:05pm (sharp!) to get the shuttle to our onsen hotel, as this left precious little time for enjoying the town. A stop for some sustenance would have been very welcome, but instead we snapped some photos and continued on our way towards Nagiso JR station another 3.5kms away.

Tsumago-juku is another beautifully restored postal town

The rain was falling quite steadily by now so there's little to tell of the journey from Tsumago to Nagiso. We were joined by a group of European travelers who were also making for the same shuttle appointment, so we were able to draft in behind them. They kept a very keen pace, and we were able to finally reach Nagiso station by 3:55pm. 10 minutes early!

Finally arrived at JR Nagiso with minutes to spare!

We were weary but really pleased with what we had accomplished. 12.3kms in around 4.5 hours (hey there was a lot of sightseeing in there!) and 500 photos. Not a bad effort.

Here is the relive video. Unfortunately I didn't turn the tracker off until we were a couple of kms down the road in the shuttle bus. You guys get it.


Postscript
We're staying in a big onsen hotel. The outdoor bath is hot and beautiful. I came back in and was sitting on my little wooden stool soaping up my bits and bobs when the female attendant started wiping and tidying the station beside me. I mean it's ok when she could be your grandma, but this nice lady wasn't much older than me. No one else paid her any heed, but inside i burned with ingrained anglo embarrassment. At least she thanked me as I was leaving.