Fine-tuning

I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend fine-tuning the 30km-a-day schedule on the wiki. I had trouble finding accommodation in some of the original stopover points, so I've changed these to either the station before or after, a difference of 5km or so in most cases. I've also scheduled in two rest days, one in Gifu and one in Shimo-Suwa.

This afternoon I stumbled across this interesting website full of old photos taken in Japan during the late-Edo and Meiji periods. Quite a lot of the photos taken around Nagano show scenes along the Nakasendo, and it was interesting to see how these places looked when the highway was still in use and how the photos compared to woodblock prints made around the same time.

This photo, taken near Wada Pass, has a peculiarly woodblock-print feel about it. Something about the trees and rocks, I think. At 1531m, Wada Pass is the highest point along the Nakasendo. I was actually looking for information on the pass when I came across the website. Apparently it gets 2-3m of snow in winter, but that won't be of concern to us (I hope) in late-October. I'm more worried about the temperature. A couple of years ago I visited Mount Koya in Wakayama prefecture around the same time of year, and remember it being pretty chilly in the evening. I had the impression it was at quite a high altitude, but it turns out it was only 1000m. Of course we won't be staying at the top of the pass. The closest we'll be overnighting is Wada village, which is just 821m.

By the way, if you hunt around on that photo site you'll find a picture of a Japanese crucifixion. The caption reassures us that the photo was taken "before the birth of the modern judicial system".

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 94.3km