Day 5 - Kyoto to Magome

We started today with a progressive breakfast, to go find a cafe that sold expresso coffee (a relatively rare beast) plus some good breakfast-type food (not quite as rare). The trick is to find somewhere that does both, which we didn't today. But we did have a very good, albeit, very expensive coffee in a very trendy looking cafe. So all was good, really!

We then checked out of hostel with fully laden back packs for the first time (day bags packed inside). I have no idea how they have suddenly become twice the weight they were when we left home!!).

We walked to the train station to catch a local train to Kyoto Station and then our first Shinkansen 🚄 to Nagoya and another local train to Nakatsugawa. All relatively straightforward, with just slight confusion navigating the exit from the Shinkansen and entry to next train using two different tickets and just one ticket machine. We asked a human and all was right with the world and we made our train connection.

Shinkansen travel was speedy but not as remarkable as I had thought it might be. You get used to travelling several hundred kms per hour very quickly it seems.

At Nakatsugawa we got directions from a helpful tourist information lady to the start of the walk and headed off on the first leg of our walk along the Nakasendo Way, the whole initial reason for this Japanese Journey.

For those who don't know and might be interested (skip this bit if not), the Nakasendo Way was a historic "Central Mountain Road" during Japan's Edo Period (1603-1868), one of the Gokaido (Five Routes) connecting the imperial capital Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo). Winding through mountainous central Japan, it featured 69 post towns (juku) for rest, attracting samurai, merchants, and pilgrims. Today, well-preserved sections, especially in the Kiso Valley (like between Magome and Tsumago), offer hikers a chance to walk cobblestone paths and experience traditional architecture, stepping back into old Japan (thanks Google!)

The path took us from the centre of town (the original Nakatsugawa Juku) via a shopping centre to get lunch) and off on what ended up being quite a number of up hill bits. The first half was mostly through the edges of Nakatsugawa and then the through the adjoining town of Ochiai (it all blended into one, really). Then we hit some actual forest and less populated areas, and more steep uppy bits before heading down into Magome, our destination for today.

Of course, the uppy bits didn't end there, because once in the middle of town we had another 450m of path up the hill to get to our accommodation, Sakanomichi Hostel. That last hike was a bit of a struggle, but we made it in the end!

Today's walk was about 9 kms all up so a lot shorter than the last two days but, with about 12kg packs on and a lot of steep uppy bits, it was not a walk in the park. We were thankful to reach the end.

We have certainly made the right choice in terms of time of year to come. The day was cool, but not freezing and we were literally the only people doing the walk. That might change tomorrow when we walk to Tsumago as that leg is the most popular...

Our hostel is new and the owner, Ken, is lovely and very helpful. He has even given us a bear bell to take on the next leg of our trip, as there has been a bear sighting a day or two ago!

There are only 5 rooms in the house, with shared bathrooms and toilets. Our bedroom has given us our first experience of tatami mats and futons for beds, and it was all enormously comfortable.

Dinner was chicken or vegetable curry and was hand made by Ken. It even had rice that was grown down the road by Ken himself. We also had mochi ice cream. The ice cream was very nice. I am not a fan of the mochi bit on the outside (made of pounded rice gunk...).

We ended up chatting for a couple of hours or more with the only other couple here, who are from Belgium. She works for the Australian embassy in Brussels!Lue lisää