This was a day to remember. It included two of the three best-preserved towns on the Nakasendo Trail, and they really were lovely.
We knew it was a reasonably easy day, and we got away about 9:30. The weather was exceptionally mild, far warmer than any other day so far in our Japan trip, and within a few hundred metres we were stopping to change to short sleeve shirts and no top layers. Until now we have worn long shirts, a merino or polarfleece jacket, a down jacket, and often yet another jacket on top, capped by a wooly hat.
We passed through fields and houses, then a sweet forest shrine.
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| Forest shrine |
First major stop for the day was the town of Magome. Quite apart from the well-preserved (or restored) houses, there was an excellent cafe and a competent barista, who was able to provide us with an espresso and a flat white respectively. The town was full of nice little shops selling locally-made products. It is a nice feature of Japan that few tourist areas inflate their prices, and we did take advantage and buy a few items to take home.
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| Magome town, cafe to the left |
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| Magome town |
Just over the pass was a free rest and tearooms staffed by volunteers who hand out cups of tea to passing travellers. This had featured on Joanna Lumley's Japan series, which had been one of the catalysts for us coming to Japan. We enjoyed our tea, then sat down to lunch on some food we'd bought at Magome.
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| Tea room at the Magome Pass |
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| Lovely water trough there |
From the Magome Pass it was all downhill to our inn a little short of Tsumago. We made a short detour to some waterfalls, but otherwise just enjoyed the pretty track through the trees. At the Maruya Inn we dropped off our day packs and continued along to visit Tsumago. Although we'd pass through it again the following day, that day was going to be long, and we didn't want to hold ourselves up, hence the early visit. Tsumago was the first town to realise that once the Meiji period started, the town was going to fade away because of better alternative transport routes such as rail. They began to look after their buildings and set rules to ensure it remained original, and thus it became the tourist town it is today.
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| Forest path |
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| This little toilet in the middle of nowhere still had a heated toilet seat with all the gadgets |
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| Tsumago post town |
Like most of the other Nakasendo Way "post towns", Tsumago is a strip of buildings lining the road on both sides. In Tokugawa Shogunate times nobles were forced to spend every second year in Edo (Tokyo) and thus there was a constant stream of daimyo and their huge entourages needing to be put up, fed and bathed. There were vast numbers of inns, horse handlers, teahouses and so on, and they are still very obvious today.
We visited the building once owned by the number two man in town, now a museum, and had a very helpful tour from a lovely guide. She told us of the emperor's visit in the 1800s, and showed us a table he'd taken tea at, which the owner had recorded in script under the tabletop.
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| Tabletop recording the emperor's visit |
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Amazing route guides
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| Model of the town |
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Along the road at Tsumago
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Back to our inn, a nice wash and tub bath, then again a full-on dinner.
