Day 1: Kyoto - Kusatsu

Distance covered: 25.7km
Weather: Fine

After much indecision and discussion with Erik the previous night, I finally decided to buy breakfast at McDonald's and eat it in my hotel room. Breakfast at the hotel was expensive, and I didn't fancy going back to the little coffee shop I went to the day before, and since there weren't any other options near the hotel, I went down to McD's and bought a Fillet-o-Fish, hash brown, hot cakes, and coffee, all for 420 yen! What a bargain! It was all a bit greasy, but I figured the hot cakes at least were slightly nutritious and the fake maple syrup would have provided some of the energy I needed to get through our first day of walking. The coffee was actually quite nice.

I did my final packing and was checked out by 7.30am. I wasn't sure what to do with my copy of Lost Japan, so I gave it to one of the receptionists at the hotel, who seemed pleased enough. Erik arrived at 8am and we took a taxi to our starting point a couple of kilometers away at Sanjo Ohashi bridge. We'd considered walking or taking the subway, but in the end decided a taxi was the way to go. On the way we had a good chat to the driver, who, like most of the people we would meet along the way, was interested in and supportive of our efforts.

With little ado (we decided on a starting routine of holding hands and counting to three in Japanese before making our first step on the Nakasendo in unison each day), we crossed Sanjo Ohashi bridge and began the gradual climb over the hills to the east of Kyoto and into the town of Yamashina. We looked back several times to take in the view of the ancient capital. From Yamashina it was a slightly steeper climb over the first pass of the journey: Osaka Toge.

The day's walk was mostly on major roads, although some of it was through backstreets. The roads were busy, but the traffic didn't really bother me at all, as there were footpaths along the busiest stretches. Because my walking map didn't cover this section of the Nakasendo, we relied on a bunch of print outs from Google Maps that I'd brought. We made a couple of mistakes with the navigation, but both times we quickly corrected ourselves.

We had a rest after conquering Osaka Toge and then pushed on through the town of Otsu to Zeze, where we stopped for lunch. I'd suggested buying bento at a supermarket and eating them down by Lake Biwa, but as we headed to the supermarket Erik spotted a nice restaurant with a balcony, so we ate there instead. It turned out to be one of the nicest meals we had throughout the entire journey. The staff were lovely, and even brought out small rugs to put on our laps (we were the only customers brave enough to eat outside, even though it was quite warm).

After lunch we continued along the edge of the lake (although we couldn't actually see it most of the time) to Seta, where we stopped for coffee and a snack. We eventually made it to Kusatsu at around 4.30pm. After checking in to our hotel, we went out and looked at a couple of nearby temples (one of the tasks we'd set ourselves for the day). We then started looking for a place to have dinner, finally settling on a Chinese restaurant inside a shopping mall. My feet were pretty sore, particularly the ball of my right foot, but there was no sign of any new blisters. I had a long bath when I got back to my hotel room and hoped that the soak along with a good night's sleep would have me feeling fit the next morning.