Day 22: Omiya - Nihonbashi

Distance covered: 30.1km
Weather: Fine

We breakfasted at our hotel (me on bread and coffee, Erik on the Japanese buffet) at 7am and set off on the final stage of our journey at 7.45am. The weather was perfect again.

It was built up most of the way, and convinced that we'd seen the last of the countryside, I made a bet with Erik that we wouldn't see any cabbage patches between Omiya and Nihonbashi. A few kilometres down the road he found some cabbages in someone's front garden and claimed his 100 yen.

At around midday we crossed the Arakawa River, which marks the boundary between Saitama prefecture and Tokyo. Half way across the Ota Bridge we saw Mount Fuji again in the distance. We felt like celebrating, but were mindful that we still had around 15km to go.

Soon after crossing into Tokyo we stopped for lunch at a swanky bar/café, which had some pretty reasonably priced lunch specials. We felt a bit out of place in our trekking gear, and were again reminded that we weren't in cabbage country anymore. We did, however, see a bear soon after that. A stuffed one in a shop window.

The last post-town before Nihonbashi was Itabashi, which still manages to retain some old world charm despite being in the middle of Tokyo.

We had already worked out that the route into Tokyo would take us through Sugamo, the neighbourhood in which Erik used to live, but it wasn't until we got there that we realized it would take us along Jizo-dori and practically right past Erik's old apartment. In fact we'd almost past his old station before we recognized the place, and had to double back to have a closer look and take some photos.

We had refreshments at Denny's by Sugamo station before setting off on the final leg of the day, which took us past Tokyo University and Akihabara and (after nearly making a wrong turn about 2km from the finish line) down the home straight to our goal at Nihonbashi.

The light was fading as we got there, but the neon lights were beautiful. We crossed the bridge, shook hands, and had a salaryman take our photo. Erik then caught the subway to his friends' house, and after a bit of searching I eventually found my hotel in nearby Kayabacho.

The End

Day 21: Kumagaya - Omiya

Distance covered: 35.9km
Weather: Fine

We breakfasted at 6.30am. It was bread and coffee only, so Erik, who needs his protein and vegetables, brought down a salad and egg roll he'd bought the night before and proceeded to eat it with a teaspoon, which was quite entertaining.

We set off around 7.55am. The weather was perfect (not a cloud in the sky) and the scenery surprisingly pleasant. Soon after leaving the city of Kumagaya we climbed up onto a river embankment and were surprised to see a snow-covered Mount Fuji in the distance.

The next post-town (Konosu) was 15.6km away, so we had lunch there at a Gusto chain restaurant. In the afternoon the landscape became less and less rural. We spent much of the time walking along a narrow road next to the main highway, often with not much room between us and the traffic.

We had a break for coffee and cake before making our final push into the old post-town of Omiya. Omiya grew into a major city with its own Shinkansen station after the war, eventually merging with two nearby cities to become part of Saitama city, the newly designated capital of Saitama prefecture and home to the John Lennon Museum.

Arriving in Omiya was like arriving on a different planet after spending so long walking through rural Japan. The flash new buildings and flash young women in boots and miniskirts reminded us we were just a day's journey from Tokyo. We even passed a bunch of ignorant gaijin, one of whom felt obliged to comment on our dress sense. He'd probably never walked more than a kilometer in his life. Loser!

Shortly before reaching Omiya station I saw a giraffe.

Omiya station was huge. We asked at the tourist information desk for directions to our hotel, which was about five minutes walk away. We checked in at around 5pm and then went back to the station area for dinner. We were a bit overwhelmed by all the bars and restaurants, and ended up at an Asian all-you-can-eat buffet place that wasn't so good (expensive, a bit gloomy inside, lots of dishes "sold out"). Not such a great choice for our last evening meal together. Never mind. One more day and we could proudly boast, "We've walked the Nakasendo from Kyoto to Tokyo."

Day 20: Shinmachi - Kumagaya

Distance covered: 31.7km Weather: Rain After the previous day's raw egg and coffee debacle, the thought of another Japanese style breakfast was a bit too much, so I got up early and popped down to a nearby 7/11 to buy a fruit yoghurt, fruit slice, egg sandwich and iced coffee, which I ate it in my room before joining Erik in the dining room downstairs. Apart from the raw egg, the hotel breakfast actually looked quite nice. There was hot coffee, too, so I helped myself to a cup. We set off at around 7.45am. The going was easy and we made good time to the next post-town of Honjo. Along the way we passed a sign indicating we were less than 100km away from Tokyo, which seemed more than enough reason to take a photo of it! We had a break in Honjo, then pressed on to the next post-town of Fukuya, arriving in time for lunch. After a bit of a hunt for somewhere to eat, we found a curry restaurant by the station (a lavish brick building resembling a European palace - the station that is, not the curry restaurant). We resumed walking at 1pm, hoping to be in Kumagaya by 3.30pm or so, but about 5km out from Kumagaya I got confused by a new motorway that wasn't on our map and we ended up drifting off course. Although I had no idea if were on the correct road or not, I thought we were heading in roughly the right direction. When we finally did ask someone the way we learnt we were at least a couple of kilometres from where we should have been. We eventually reestablished contact with the Nakasendo on the main street of Kumagaya where the old road famously goes through a department store. Much of central Kumagaya was destroyed during the war, and during the post-war reconstruction period the streets were realigned and a corner of the Yagihashi Department Store (the cosmetics section, to be precise) ended up being built over the top of the old Nakasendo. So if you want to walk this section of it you have to time your arrival to coincide with the opening hours of the store. It was close to 5pm by the time we arrived at our hotel by Kumagaya station. We checked in then went out for dinner at a chain Italian restaurant, where I had spaghetti, garlic toast, seafood chowder, and a glass of white wine all for 903 yen, while Erik had a steak and pizza. I noticed that my left big toe (the one that was operated on back in New Zealand) was a bit sore around the nail. I hoped it wasn't infected.

Day 19: Isobe Onsen - Shinmachi

Distance covered: 32.6km
Weather: Rain

Breakfast at Miharashikan resembled breakfast at most of the Japanese inns we stayed at, except this time we each got a raw egg to break over our bowl of rice. Unlike Erik (who on more than one occasion helped himself to two portions of natto at breakfast time), this is one Japanese custom I've never gotten used to. The proprietress offered us fried eggs instead, but I was too proud to say anything. So my raw egg lay on its wee saucer untouched.

As an experiment, I decided to see how long I could last without a cup of coffee in the morning. The experiment was a dismal failure. By around 9am I was feeling quite fatigued, so I got an iced coffee from a 7/11 and gulped it down on the spot. I felt a lot better.

The rest of the journey to Shinmachi was pretty uneventful. We made good time on the flat and reached the city of Takasaki by lunchtime. It rained most of the day, so I didn't take a lot of photos. Also, because the scenery tended to be a little monotonous once we got onto the Kanto plain, I started taking photos of some of the statues, monuments and route markers we passed along the way. The one below marks a fork in the old road, the path to the left leading to Nikko and the path to the right leading to Edo (Tokyo). Luckily we chose the path to the right.

The only real incident occurred in the afternoon when we were about 5km from our destination of Shinmachi. A man in a van stopped beside us and asked us where we were going. When we told him, he said there was nothing to see along the way and offered us a ride in his van. He didn't want any money, he assured us. We thanked him but explained that we wanted to walk because it was important that we walk the entire route of the Nakasendo. He didn't seem to understand, and insisted we get in his van. In the end we had to walk away. It was indeed a strange encounter.

We arrived in Shinmachi around 3.45pm and checked into the Shinmachi Station Hotel, a rather dreary little business hotel that was probably the most depressing place we stayed in during the entire journey. In fact the whole town was rather depressing. We did have a nice meal at an okonomiyaki restaurant, though. The proprietor was very friendly, and even cooked the okonomiyaki for us.

Day 18: Karuizawa - Isobe Onsen

Distance covered: 21.8km
Weather: Fine

It wasn't quite the minus 4 degrees that Erik predicted, but at 4 degrees it was certainly nice not to have to go outside for breakfast.

We left our hotel at around 7am and rejoined the Nakasendo before passing through old Karuizawa, which is quite picturesque and laid back compared to the new town which later sprang up around the railway station. We then began the climb up to Usui Toge, the last of the passes on route to the Kanto plain and Tokyo.

Our intention was to follow the advice of Mr Kishimoto and trace the original Nakasendo route to the top of the pass rather then the more modern walking track, but although we soon found it with the help of one of Mr Kishimoto's route markers and were able to follow it for a few hundred metres, we soon lost the trail and had to rejoin the road above to continue the climb. We found the old route again for the last hundred metres or so, then continued on up to the lookout area for a wonderful view of the mountains on the Gunma prefecture side of the Gunma/Nagano border.

After a breather, we started the long (7km) descent to the next post-town of Sakamoto. We soon left the road and didn't see it again till we reached the bottom. The descent took us from an altitude of 1200m at the top of the pass down to 400m at Sakamoto (Karuizawa, our starting point for the day, is at an altitude of 950m). We passed a few day hikers going up to the shrine at the top of the pass, one of whom stopped for a while to talk to use. It was easy going most of the way, although the last stretch was quite rocky and steep.

Once at the bottom we started looking for a lunch spot, and found a nice restaurant inside a resort complex just off the main road. I had an eggplant and mushroom spaghetti, which was almost as delicious as the spaghetti I had at Sakudaira. The coffee was good too. We then set off again, following the valley into which we'd descended to the post-town of Matsuida. This stretch was quite beautiful in parts, with glorious views of the valley below and the craggy mountains on the far side of the river.

We arrived in Matsuida at around 3pm. We looked around for a coffee shop but couldn't find one, so I resorted to buying a coffee in a supermarket and drinking it in the car park. We then continued on to our final destination of the day, the hot-spring resort town of Isobe Onsen. Getting to Isobe Onsen required leaving the Nakesendo and descending into the river valley below. We had to ask for directions a couple of times, but we eventually arrived at our ryokan, Miharashikan, just as the sun was setting.

Our room was newly renovated and nicely decorated. We had a soak in the ryokan's hot-spring bath before heading down for dinner at 6.30pm. We shared the dining room with a couple of older Japanese guys who used to be schoolmates at university and who now work for different companies. One was a yachtie and was keen on visiting New Zealand. We had a long talk with them before eventually retiring at around 8pm.

Day 17: Sakudaira - Karuizawa

Distance covered: 18.9km
Weather: Fine

After a leisurely breakfast at our hotel, we set off at 8.20am, later than usual due to the fact that it was our shortest day, but also because we were a bit reluctant to leave the comfort of the Hotel AQA.

Soon after rejoining the Nakasendo, we passed through the old post-town of Iwamurada, which in its modern guise resembles a seemingly endless shopping arcade. The scenery improved as we left the city and headed towards the foothills of Mount Asama, whose imposing form loomed over us for most of the day, although the smoke that was visible the day before was now absent. There where occasional rises and falls in the road as we negotiated these foothills, but nothing nearly as demanding as the passes we'd negotiated earlier in the week.

Our first goal was to reach Oiwake, where we planned to visit the museum we'd heard about from the Japanese hiker who'd stayed in the same ryokan as us in Hosokute. The only problem was it wasn't marked on our map, and we were unsure of exactly where it was.

We reached Oiwake at around noon after a leisurely morning's walk. I noticed a building with a sign outside it on our left as we entered the town, and on closer inspection it turned out to be the very building we were after. It looked like a large two-storey house. There didn't seem to be anyone around as we walked up to the door and entered the museum.

As soon as we set foot inside we were greeted enthusiastically by a middle-aged couple. We'd been told the man who ran the museum was a Mr Yamagishi (I'd even written this down in my diary), but his name was in fact Mr Kishimoto, which made for a rather complicated round of introductions. We soon realized, however, that Mr Kishimoto was expecting us, which explained the warm welcome. Apparently the hiker from Hosokute had rung Mr Kishimoto after meeting us and told him a New Zealander and an American would probably be dropping in sometime over the coming days. How very Japanese!

Anyway, Mr Kishimoto used to be a high school geography teacher, and it showed in his manner. As soon as we'd taken off our shoes and put down our packs, he took out a pointer and began his "lesson" by explaining the route of the Nakasendo on a large map above the entrance. Every so often he'd break off this lesson and allow us to explore the museum on our own or to enjoy the tea, coffee and snacks his wife brought in, but before long he'd bring us together again to continue the lesson in another part of the museum.

The lessons were enjoyable and incredibly informative. These are just some of the things I learnt during our short stay at the museum:

• The wood-block print artist Eisen (famous for his prints of beautiful women) was originally commissioned to produce the complete series of The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido, but after producing the first 22 he was "fired" and replaced by Hiroshige (whose Fifty-Four Stations of the Tokaido had been a hit) because the prints weren't selling.

• In the prints, the kai in Kisokaido is written using the character for "sea" instead of the standard character for "town" because this would associate the series in people's minds with the successful Fifty-Four Stations of the Takaido series (the kai of Tokaido is written with the "sea" character).

• The post-town of Shiojiri (literally "salt junction") was so named because it was the end point of the two so-called salt trails in Japan, one of which was used to transport salt from the Japan Sea coast of the country and the other of which was used to transport it from the Pacific Ocean coast.

• Lacquerware was once so closely associated with Japan that it was referred to in the West as simply "Japan" (in the same way that porcelain came to be known as "China"). It was originally thought that, like so much of Japanese culture, the art of lacquerware-making was imported into Japan from China, but recent research suggests it may in fact have originated in Japan.

Incidentally, to show us how durable Japanese lacqueware is, Mr Kishimoto showed us an Edo period lacquerware tray that was over 150 years old. It barely had a scratch on it and looked almost new. It was amazing!

Erik and I were both incredibly impressed with the museum and with Mr Kishimoto's knowledge and enthusiasm. But Mr Kishimoto's involvement with the Nakasendo extended beyond just establishing and running his museum. As well as publishing a guide to the Nakesendo, he also took it upon himself to travel along its length erecting small green route markers to guide people along the more difficult stretches of the track. What's more, he'd even gone out and cleared sections of the original track that had become overgrown. We'd seen some of these signs along the way, and wondered who'd erected them. Now we knew.

Soon after leaving the museum we stopped for lunch at a spaghetti restaurant. We then pushed on to Karuizawa, arriving at around 4pm. It was already quite cold when we arrived (the ski season had already begun, and we could see a skifield not far away on the opposite side of the station), and it got even colder as night fell.

After checking in to our hotel, we went out for coffee and cake and to try to find a coffee shop that was open early in the morning where we could have breakfast. Our search was in vain, and we ended up buying various breakfasty things (yoghurt, raisin bread rolls, coffee, etc.) at a Lawson's convenience store to eat in our rooms the following morning (we were determined on principle to avoid the exorbitantly priced buffet breakfast at the hotel).

Later that evening we braved the cold and went out to a cheese restaurant for a fondue dinner. We ended up ordering extra bread and fondue, plus I had a glass of white wine. It was extravagant by our standards (it came to just under 6000 yen for the two of us) but it was a very enjoyable evening, and the perfect way to end a great day.

Day 16: Wada - Sakudaira

Distance covered: 30km
Weather: Fine

I slept right through to 6am, when I was woken by Erik's alarm. We breakfasted at 7am on the usual Japanese fare of grilled fish, rice, miso soup, and various side dishes of pickles and vegetables, plus in my case a cup of coffee from the pot in the dining room.

We left at 7.50am and got a warm send off from the couple running Hontei ryokan. It was downhill all the way to the next post-town of Nagakubo some 7.5km away. While resting there, we were approached by a Japanese man. He asked us if we were interested in history, and if we knew anything about Nagakubo. I consulted my guide and read from it the description of Nagakubo, which had a population of 720 in 1843, with a considerably higher number of females compared to males due to the high number of meshi-mori onna, or serving girls who doubled as "entertainers." Our new friend said he had a letter from one of these meshi-mori onna, and invited us into his house to look at it.

It was a love letter addressed to a local boy, asking him why he hadn't kept an appointment and imploring him not to break off their relationship. Our host explained that life was tough for these women, who were usually sold into the business by their out-of-town families. Many of them died in their twenties from TB, and some of them resorted to trying to burn down their places of employment in an attempt to escape their retched existence. The man then invited us to look at his collection of statues, but we had already stayed too long and so we said our goodbyes and pressed on.

Soon after leaving Nagakubo we began the climb up to Kasatori Toge. It was much easier than the pass we'd conquered the day before, and the temperature much warmer. During the descent we passed a famous avenue of pine trees originally planted in the Edo period. When they came to build the new road they had to do it alongside the existing road because the gap between the rows was too narrow.

Further on we met a young woman coming the other way who stopped and struck up a conversation with us. She was out walking for the day. She worked as a pharmacist but painted in the Nihon-ga style as a hobby. We asked her if there were any places to eat on the road ahead, and she kindly gave us a map of the next town, Mochizuki, with several restaurants marked on it.

We arrived in Mochizuki at around 12.30pm (after getting a bit lost near the entrance to the town) and had lunch at a restaurant on the main street. We left at 1.15pm, and while the remainder of the day's journey into Sakudaira was largely uneventful, we were impressed by the countryside, which was dominated by Mount Asama, an active volcano which was spouting a visible plume of smoke.

Just before reaching the post-town of Iwamurada, we left the Nakasendo and walked a kilometre or so down a busy road to the town of Sakudaira, where we'd arranged accommodation at the AQA Hotel. We were very impressed with our rooms, which although on the small side, were ultra modern looking with nice wooden floors and views of Mount Asama from the bathrooms (in fact the bathroom windows had been designed in such a way that one could see the view while relaxing in the tub). It would have to be one of the nicest business hotels I've ever stayed in.

Sakudaira is a modern bed-town with lots of shops and restaurants and even its own Shinkansen station. For dinner we went to a Coco's family restaurant. I had a lovely tomato-flavoured seafood spaghetti with bread. We also went to a supermarket inside a huge shopping mall to stock up on nuts and dried fruits. It was very cold in the evening, so I wore my woolen hat and the new gloves I'd bought in Shimo-suwa.

Day 15: Shimo-suwa - Wada

Distance covered: 22.6km Weather: Rain, then cloudy, then misty, then cloudy again It was pouring down when I got up just after 6am. The weather forecast was for rain throughout the day, not quite what we wanted as we contemplated the difficult climb up to Wada Toge, which at 1600m is the highest point on the entire Nakasendo. However, during breakfast we noticed the rain had stopped. It hadn't started again by the time we left the hotel at 7.50am, although we had our raingear on in readiness for the next downpour. We'd aimed to catch the 7.52 train back to Kami-suwa, but it'd already left by the time we got to the station. There was another train at 8.02, but we decided it would be easier to take a taxi. It turned out the taxi driver was a keen walker (he'd done the pilgrimage on Shikoku), so we had a good chat to him along the way. He told us a bit about the journey ahead and some of the sights to look out for. We rejoined the Nakasendo at 8.15am, and immediately began the steady climb up to Wada Toge. We soon passed one of the sites where the logs used in the Onbashira festival are skidded down a steep slope. Soon after that we made a wrong turn, and ended up walking more than a kilometre up a picturesque little valley before realizing we weren't where we should have been and backtracking to get back onto the Nakasendo. For much of the morning we were walking along a busy highway, often with no footpath, but it wasn't very steep and the autumn colours were beautiful, plus it hadn't rained at all since we left, so despite the odd frightening encounter with a truck, it wasn't too unpleasant. Still, it was a relief when we eventually left the highway to begin the final part of the ascent along the original route of the Nakasendo. Unfortunately this was also the steepest part of the climb, and the track was pretty rugged in parts, taking us over rock falls and up what looked to be streambeds. We took it slowly and took lots of breaks, and eventually made it to the top at 12.30pm. It had taken us four and a quarter hours to walk just over 11km! The descent was different altogether. For much of the time we were walking along fairly wide grass or stone pathways etched through a beautiful forest. The mist, which we'd found cold and unpleasant at the top, now added a hauntingly beautiful quailty to the landscape around us. We interrupted our descent to have lunch at an old diner. We chatted to the proprietor, whom I imagine lives a pretty lonely existence in such an isolated place, and learnt that his daughter had married an Englishman and gone to live overseas. He even showed us some photos of the wedding! He also gave us a free sample of the diner's specialty: chikaramochi, or mochi (rice cake) stuffed with bean paste. Apparently people used to eat this in the old days to give them the energy to make it over the pass. We left the diner at 1.15pm and continued the descent into Wada. We had rejoined the highway by this stage, and although we enjoyed the luxury of a footpath for a while, it eventually disappeared and once again we had to compete for space with lots of trucks coming in both directions. We made it to the town of Wada at around 4pm and found the old inn we were staying in that night, Hontei ryokan. We got a very warm welcome from the couple who run the place. There was some lovely jazz music playing on the stereo when we arrived, and when I commented on it the husband explained that he used to play the double bass in a jazz band. He then offered me a cup of coffee, which I gratefully accepted, despite having just drunk a can coffee from a vending machine down the road (the last thing I expected at an old ryokan like this was freshly brewed coffee). The bath at Hontei was large and looked very inviting, but unfortunately both of us found it so hot we couldn't stay in for very long, even after adding some cold water. We also had to contend with a very old toilet of the type we in New Zealand refer to as a "long drop". Still, we enjoyed our stay very much. We had a huge upstairs room. In fact there were no other guests at all, so we had the whole place to ourselves.

Day 13: Narai - Shimo-suwa

Distance covered: 36.2km
Weather: Misty, then fine

We left Narai at around 7.45am on what was originally intended to be the longest day of our journey (before the stuff up on Day 9, that was). It was cold when we left and the hills were shrouded in mist, but it soon fined up and turned into a perfect day for walking.

After about an hour and a half we reached the next post-town of Niegawa, where we rested outside a museum built on the site of an old sekisho, or checkpoint established for the purposes of controling the passage of people along the Nakasendo during the Edo period.

We then pressed on to the next post-town of Motoyama. While resting there we met three female hikers walking in the opposite direction. They'd come from Shiojiri on a day hike. They offered us a couple of mandarin oranges, and in return we gave them some of the chocolate I'd bought the previous day. It was the first of several mostly pleasant encounters we were to have with other walkers that day.

We headed off again at around 10.45am, aiming to have lunch somewhere between Motoyama and Shiojiri, which was some 12km away. Instead, however, we decided to press on to Shiojiri itself, which our guide described as "a provincial city," and which we were sure would have lots of nice restaurants. We eventually left the Kiso Valley and entered a vast basin full of the apple orchards for which Nagano prefecture is famous as well as lots of vineyards.

By this time it was quite warm, and we were enjoying both the weather and the flat, open terrain. We reached Shiojiri just after midday, but despite our best efforts we couldn't find a single place to eat. Unfortunately I'd failed to read the bit in the guide explaining that the railway station, and the new city's center, were a little apart from the old post-town.

We were at a bit of a loss. We didn't want to stray too far off the Nakasendo because it was such a long day and time was of the essence. On the other hand, we were reluctant to continue along the Nakasendo any further because ahead of us was one of the highest passes of our journey: Shiojiri Toge. As luck would have it, about a kilometer out from Shiojiri, just as the road was starting to become steeper, we stumbled across a coffee shop that served big toasted sandwiches and baguettes. We ordered mixed sandwiches, and the man behind the counter kindly offered to make me a special non-meat version by substituting cheese (or maybe it was egg) for the normal bacon.

We felt a lot more confident about tackling the pass now that our stomachs were full. The ascent was gradual at first and along a narrow road. On the way up we passed a party of 24 hikers of all ages, members of a group that walk the old highways of Japan. Last year they'd done the Tokaido. We had a nice chat with them. Further up we came across an older guy walking in the same direction as us. He was one of the many people who walk the Nakasendo in "installments," and had originally set out from his home in Kyoto in 2001 (he'd been forced to take a break of a couple of years due to illness). He seemed a bit lost (he had a very rudimentary map), so we accompanied him for a while before pushing ahead near the top of the pass. (Coincidently, we met him again that evening at Shimo-suwa station just after we arrived. Sure enough, he'd gotten completely lost on the descent, and had to hitch a ride in someone's car!)

We made it to the top of the pass at around 3pm. There was an observation platform with great views of Lake Suwa on the other side. Suwa was a lot more built up than either of us had imagined. I had expected to see a hot-spring resort on the edge of the lake, but what confronted us was more like a city stretching around the entire circumference of Lake Suwa.

The descent was a lot steeper than the ascent, and before long we were on the outskirts of Kami-suwa. However, it took us a further hour and a half to reach Kami-suwa station, although it was slightly downhill all the way and so the going was easy. The accommodation I'd booked was further around the lake in Shimo-suwa. This meant leaving the Nakasendo, and we'd earlier debated whether we should walk or take a train (it was probably 3-4 kilometres away). In the end, it wasn't a difficult decision to make. We were both tired, and when we reached the station we found there was a train leaving in just a few minutes, so we hurriedly bought tickets and jumped on.

We arrived at our hotel at around 5.15pm. We checked in and then went out for dinner at a pizza restaurant by the lake. There was a lovely little communal hot-spring bath (including an open-air bath) in the hotel, but I was too tired to use it that evening. We did make use of it the following day (a rest day).

Day 12: Kiso-Fukushima - Narai

Distance covered: 21.7km
Weather: Misty, then fine

We breakfasted at 7am and left Ryokan Sarashinaya just after 7.45am. It was cold and misty outside, and for the first couple of hours I wore my fleece vest over my long-sleeved shirt, the first time since leaving Kyoto that I'd had to resort to wearing the vest while actually walking. We took our first break of the day just before the town of Mienokoshi at the halfway point of our journey. We joked that there was no longer any point in turning back, as it would be quicker to carry on to Tokyo.

Soon after that we got a little lost trying to find a footbridge across a river, and had to climb up to the main road to get across. On the way we passed a large sumo ring, which seemed oddly out of place in such a rural setting.

A little further along we came across a trio of elderly cyclists out on a day ride, who seemed very pleased to meet us and insisted on taking some photos.

Leaving Mienokoshi, we found the road ahead blocked where some work was being done on stabilizing the hillside above the road. We'd successfully negotiated roadworks before and so were confident of being allowed through, but when we asked the workers if we could walk past, they told us it was too dangerous. We pleaded with them, explaining that we had walked all the way from Kyoto, and they eventually relented. "It wouldn't be fair to make you walk all the way back," one of them said.

Further along we had the unusual experience of walking along the middle of an abandoned stretch of highway (a tunnel had recently been built nearby, rendering the original section of highway obsolete). There were weeds and saplings growing through cracks in the tarmac, and the bush was encroaching on the road on either side. The abandoned highway ran alongside a picturesque river, and as the autumn colours were at their peak, there were quite a few photographers here.

We arrived in Yabuhara slightly after midday and had lunch at a place just off the main street. I bought some chocolate as I'd been feeling a bit listless the last few days and thought I needed an energy boost, especially considering we were about to tackle yet another pass: Torii Toge. The pass was tough but took us through some beautiful terrain. There was a big bear bell half way up, and another one on the other side.

The descent took us into the town of Narai, where we arrived just after 3pm. Like Magome and Tsumago, Narai has many old buildings and retains much of the character of an old post-town. We wandered down the long main street rubbing shoulders with noticeably well-dressed tourists before retiring to a rather chic coffee shop for refreshments. I had coffee and cheesecake, and Erik had some apple cinnamon tea. He liked it so much he even ate the apple out of the teapot! I had a bit too, and must admit it was pretty yummy. We then found our minshuku and checked in.

Our room was on the small side, but the innkeeper was very friendly, and agreed to have breakfast ready at 7am the next morning even though they didn't usually serve it until 7.30am. Dinner was nice, although it was spoiled somewhat by the presence at the next table of an extremely opinionated Japanese man who wouldn't stop talking to us. They say that travel broadens the mind, but in his case it seemed to have had the opposite effect. At one point he pronounced that he was disappointed with the food in Italy, declaring that the food served in Italian restaurants in Japan was better! Go figure. He then started talking politics, at which point we retired for the evening.

Day 11: Nojiri - Kiso-Fukushima

Distance covered: 28.1km
Weather: Cloudy, then fine

We had breakfast from 6.30am at the dining room at Koiji. The innkeeper's husband made a brief appearance before heading off to work, scoffing down a piece of toast with jam and a cup of instant coffee while we dined on a traditional Japanese breakfast, including grilled salmon, miso soup, and rice. At 7.15am the innkeeper drove us back to the station, again saving us a long walk.

The first leg of the day's journey to Agematsu was pretty uneventful. We had a break at Suhara before tackling the only ascent of the day. We passed several other walkers, but none seemed overly keen to talk to us. For much of the day we were walking along a busy motorway. It was quite narrow at times, which was a bit scary as there seemed to be more trucks than normal using this stretch of road.

At Agematsu we had lunch at a small coffee shop. The menu was pretty limited. I chose the shrimp pilaf, and Erik the mixed sandwich. Soon after we ordered, I noticed the woman who was running the coffee shop whisper in the ear of a patron at the counter. He went out and came back a few minutes later with a loaf of bread. I guess they don't get too many orders for the mixed sandwich!

As we continued to climb up the Kiso Valley the autumn colours became more pronounced. We'd planned the walk in such a way that we were guaranteed to see some of Japan's famous autumn colours at some point along the journey, and as luck would have it we ran into them in one of the most picturesque parts of the country.

We arrived in Kiso-Fukushima just after 3pm and got directions to our ryokan from the tourist information office across from the station. I had a craving for some cake, so we also got a recommendation for a nice coffee shop. Unfortunately the cake at the place we were directed to was straight out of the freezer, although it was quite tasty and the coffee was good.

We then checked in to our ryokan, which was right beside the Kiso River (in fact the noise of the water kept me awake that night). Erik suggested we go for a walk. On the way back from our stroll through the old part of town we were treated to a magnificent sunset.

Back at the ryokan, we bathed before heading down for dinner at 6.30pm. At the end of the meal we had a brief chat with the "mama-san", a bubbly woman (in contrast to her husband, who came across as rather dour) who was eager to practice her English.

Day 10: Magome - Nojiri

Distance covered: 20.6km
Weather: Fine, then cloudy, then rainy

I slept soundly at first, but woke ridiculously early again and found when I got up that I'd been bitten by insects of some kind (bedbugs?) during the night, leaving me with itchy red spots on my lower back. I applied Oronine ointment (which I always carry with me whenever there's a chance I'll be bitten by mosquitoes), and the spots disappeared after a few days.
We went down for breakfast together at 7.30am. It was a fairly standard Japanese breakfast of grilled salmon, egg roll, miso soup, and various side dishes. Once again we were seated next to the couple from Melbourne, who accepted our invitation to accompany us on the first leg of the day's walk to Tsumago. The four of us set off at 8.30am.

It was uphill right from the moment we left the ryokan. The initial climb to Magome Toge (801m) was a bit tough, especially after the previous day's marathon effort. Thankfully it was mainly downhill for the rest of the day.

We took it pretty slowly, reaching Tsumago at around 11am, when it started to rain. We left our Melbournian friends there and, after putting on our raingear, pressed on to Nagiso for lunch. We ate at a rather seedy looking restaurant by the busy main road in what we both agreed was a depressing little town. Strangely enough I had pleasant memories of the town from when I visited it a few years ago, although those were mainly due to the friendliness of the woman at the local tourist office. Plus the weather was a lot better then.

The food at the restaurant was actually OK (I had mushroom spaghetti plus an egg toast sandwich and coffee), but we were eager to leave as the atmosphere was getting us down. To make matters worse, Erik declared that he felt the worst he'd felt since leaving Kyoto.

We pushed on and eventually arrived in the town of Nojiri at around 3.30pm. Nojiri seemed an altogether more inviting place than Nagiso. As soon as we pulled up by the station a cleaner outside the tourist office greeted us in English. He showed us inside and introduced us to someone who could give us directions to our accommodation, a minshuku (family-run inn) called Koiji. We were impressed with the friendliness and helpfulness of the man who dealt with us. He told us it would take about half an hour to get to Koiji on foot. We rang them to let them know we were on our way, whereupon the woman who answered the phone offered to pick us up. We gladly accepted.

On arrival at Koiji we were shown into our rooms. Like at Masuya, we had two large rooms, one for relaxing and eating and one for sleeping. They looked quite new, and there was a large flat screen TV in the main room. We bathed and rested before having dinner. It was a feast, consisting of among other things sashimi, tempura, and oden. We felt spoilt, and were incredibly impressed with the kindness and energy of the woman who ran Koiji. Out of all the places we stayed it was probably the cheapest, yet the room, meal, and service were among the best we encountered.