Magome to Tsumago — First Steps on the Nakasendo

Pretty hamlets along the way

Today was day 1 of our hike on the Nakasendo. 

Unfortunately, the futon and traditional pillow were not kind to Fi and I. Sleep, if any, was fitful at best. Somewhere in the wee small hours we both stirred. Fi heard the birds, I saw the sunlight. We both exchanged a silent glance of cautious optimism that it was at last time to get up, and simultaneously realised it was only 4:30 in the morning. Close, but no cigar.

So we did what any sensible person does at 4:30am in a 200-year-old ryokan — we pulled on our yukata, snuck out into the garden, and held an impromptu photo shoot in the garden. This was followed by a restorative soak in the onsen, which did an admirable job of ironing out the overnight damage and preparing our bodies for what lay ahead.

Who are these two amazing looking models?!

Breakfast at 7:30 could not have come soon enough.

Over the meal we met the owner's nephew, who was also the chef, and who upon hearing our plans for the day offered to simply drive us to Magome. Just like that. The original plan had involved a certain amount of precision timing:

10:45 — Local bus from Nakatsugawa Station to Magome-juku (Terminal 3, Yellow zone, left of the station exit). Fare: ¥800 per person, coins only, pay the driver on exit. 11:10 — Arrive Magome, begin the 8km walk to Tsumago, lunch sourced in town and consumed somewhere scenic along the way. 15:00 — Arrive Tsumago, explore. 16:10 — Arranged transfer from Tsumago Car Park 1 to the hotel.

A kind man with a car rendered all of that completely unnecessary. He also saved us a taxi fare, a bus fare, got us there earlier, and meant we'd be walking before the day hit its forecast high of 30 degrees. We were not going to argue.

Breakfast time! Get those calories in 

We may have enough photos of us in yukatas to produce our own calendar. A little late for formal introductions but from left to right - Ellis, May, Fi, moi, Serena, Jays

Baymax is ready, along with a trusty bear bell thanks to Fiona (& Amazon)

Bus...yes. The best sight ever for lazy and money-saving-loving Asian travellers

We arrived at Magome shortly at around 0920, and after unsanctioned toilet breaks and coffee hunts began our walk towards Tsumago at 0930. Magome sits at the top of a long, stone-paved slope rising through the hillside. We walked along the path lined with waterways and carefully restored Edo-period merchant houses restored with quiet care. It was like stepping back in time. It was once a prosperous checkpoint town on the Nakasendo, and the writer Shimazaki Tōson — one of Japan's most celebrated Meiji-era novelists — was born here, a fact the town notes with considerable and deserved pride.

The 8km Magome to Tsumago walk is the jewel of the Nakasendo, and it's easy to understand why. Cedar groves, moss-covered stones, old paved highway sections and rural hamlets...what more could a tourist want. We enjoyed our walk immensely. The heat, though, was no joke. My top was drenched with sweat by the time we arrived in Tsumago shortly before 1pm. 

At the start of our hike in Magome

Coffee has an uncontrollable magnetic pull on these 2...and May and Ellis

The initial uphill at Magome. We felt the shops were better at Magome

It was cool seeing these things along way

A viewpoint looking back towards Magome just on the outskirts of the town

The trail was very well marked and well maintained

Bears are known to wander these lands

If you don't have your own bear bells, they had them at regular intervals along the hike that you can toll

Waterfalls

Signposts had both distances and directions

Spring blooms were still aroud

Tea houses and rest stops were plentiful along the way as were restrooms. This one was in a traditional building 

With vintage paraphaphernalia

I'm no botanist. Someone tell me if this is cedar...

Pretty creeks

Larger ones

Our first glimpses of the very well preserved Tsumago

A masugata was a place where the road was constructed to turn at two right angles in order to obstruct movement of any potential attacking forces. The masugata at Tsumago-juku has been particularly well preserved in its original form.

Lunch was very welcomed not only to replenish our energy source but also as a respite from the sun, and as a source of ice cold water. Cold soba with mushroom tempura

Well done team!

Oh what a feeling!

Tsumago, by contrast to Magome, sits in a valley, sheltered and still. It is perhaps even better preserved than Magome — electricity cables are buried underground, modern signage is banned from the main street, and the effect is startlingly complete. In 1968 it became one of Japan's first protected historic districts, largely through the efforts of its own residents, who chose preservation over modernisation at a time when that was not the obvious choice. 

We were collected from Tsumago Car Park 1 (a shared hotel transfer for all hotel guests) as arranged and delivered to our home for the evening — Hotel Fukinomori.

The hotel lacked the intimate charm of the previous night's ryokan but it compensated with a considerably more luxurious onsen, including an outdoor bath, which goes a long way toward forgiveness. We savoured every minute of it before submitting to yet another multicourse dinner, because apparently that was expected of us.

We retired to the common lounge afterward, where the mochi-and-whisky after-party format of the previous evening was quietly retired in favour of tea and the communal sharing of the day's photos. Tomorrow we continue from Nagiso to Nojiri!

Lobby of Hotel Fukinomori

Our much less traditional room

Bathroom again was a decent size

Shower

View from our balcony

Our appetiser. Right in front is quince liqueur

Sobagaki. One of the few things I didn't like. A paste/dough? made from soba seeds

Smoked salmon and trout sashimi. Yuba down the bottom and then soy sauce foam

Sukiyaki!

Amago no Shioyaki a salt grilled river fish

Vegetable tempura with onion sauce

Strawberry bavarois. We had to edumacate ourselves on exactly what a bavarois was

Another lovely end to another great day