Kiso Valley: June 24-25

June 24. We headed out early to catch the train to Nakatsugawa, then subsequently to Nagiso. The train to Nakatsugawa was a limited express, and the Nagiso one was a local train. Lots of stops, we were the only Caucasians on the train. Actually, we were the only Caucasians we saw until we got back to Tokyo the next day. The Kiso valley, where the villages of Tsumago and Magome are, contains a well-preserved remnant of the old Edo-period Nakasendo highway. Both villages are very much preserved in the Edo style. Beautiful old buildings, and a winding path through a mountain pass connecting the two villages. We arrived at Nagiso, looked around a bit before realizing that the bus sitting in front of the station was the bus to Tsumago. So we took the bus, arriving in Tsumago 15 minutes later. We headed up into the village and realized that we had no idea where to go. We looked around for a while, then Marina asked for directions at an ice-cream shop. With a little work, they were able to find it on the map, and we headed that way (stopping at the tourist center where I found an English map which had out minshuku on it!).

Arriving at the minshuku (Shimosagaya), we found a small girl who spoke no English. Hah! She directed us to come upstairs, and pointed us to a room. We dropped our bags, had some welcoming green tea, and headed out. We started along the trail to Magome, not realizing that we had already passed our last chance to get water. Or food. For 7 kilometers. Uh-oh. The trail passed through a couple small (4-5 house) residential areas, along with completely wooded paths (and two waterfalls!). We ended up drinking some water from a couple spigots on the way (which may have come back to bite us in the ass – literally- a day later…), then got some dried currants from a shop and drinks from a vending machine at the highest point of the trail, the Magome pass. Then we descended into Magome, which was as nice as Tsumago, but we didn’t have much time to see it – we had missed the last bus back and a taxi would cost $30! So we decided to double-time it back. We jogged most of the way! 7 and a half km, up and down mountain paths. We were quite tired when we got back, but we made it in time for dinner. After a quick change, dinner in the dining room. It was amazing. Some salted fish, some thinly sliced ultra-rare beef, rice, pickles, tempura, and other things. Along with some plum wine. Then we each took a relaxing bath, then walked around Tsumago. We saw fireflies – in fact, it was time for their firefly festival – the streets all lit up with candles, and everyone around going up to a specific place where there were tons of fireflies. Pretty cool.

The next morning, another amazing meal (rice, pickles, egg, various other tidbits), then a bus to Nagiso, local train to Nakatsugawa, limited express to Nagoya, and finally a Shinkansen back to Tokyo. I wish we could have stayed more than just one day in the Kiso Valley, and I'd definitely like to come back to visit again in the future.