As I've mentioned before, a lot of the enquiries I get from readers of this blog are about maps. Usually they're from people who want to walk the Nakasendo but can't find a map of the route in English. The bad news is, as far as I know, there are still no commercially available maps of this kind. But for those of you looking for GPX data, I have some good news.
A couple of years ago, Léonie van den Haak, a Dutch ultrarunner living in Tokyo, ran the length of the Nakasendo. Yes, she ran it. In a time of 5 days 7 hours and 32 minutes. (For comparison, it took me 22 days to walk the same route.) She took along a GPS device, and posted the data she collected here:
I've had a look at the map displayed at the above site, and apart from a minor deviation in Kumagaya, which meant she didn't run through the Yagibashi Department Store, it looks pretty accurate. So if GPX data for the Nakasendo is what you're after, look no more!
Note: As mentioned in this post, if you have an iPhone, there are also apps for the Tokaido, Nakasendo, Koshu Kaido, Nikko Kaido and Oshu Kaido. All the information about the posttowns and so on is in Japanese, but you should still be able to follow the routes even if you can't read the language.
