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.