Sashimi, saki and sore feet

After 5 tough days of walking along parts of the Nakasendo Way, tonight our merry group of 11 is comfortably lounging in a traditional Japanese inn somewhere around the area of Tsumago - in the Niso mountains. The trip has been very well organised and led by an excellent Walk Japan guide named Tetsuo who, unfortunately, couldn’t control the weather. The high temperatures and humidity have been a challenge and a few of us took some short cuts offered by the guide. Helen soldiered on in most cases given that her personal motto is …..“ a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”. Where as Mike and I subscribe more to the motto “……they said it couldn’t be done, so we didn’t do it”. Kidding aside, given the unexpected humidity and heat, most of the group have taken advantage of some shortened routes on a couple of the days. But it’s still been an amazing experience and we’ve enjoyed lots of sights. We’ve made many stops including at a couple of good museums, There are shrines and buddha temples along the way and interesting sights like farmers harvesting rice, There are 69 ancient post towns along this route and some of the buildings in these villages are virtually unchanged from the Edo period. Today we visited Tsumago and Magome - probably two of the most well preserved post towns. These small villages have avoided adding electric poles and vending machines. Our guide explains things like the old wooden Proclamation boards along the way that served to pass information from the Shogun to the locals - things like , watch out for those pesky Christians.
For the most part we are staying at traditional Japanese Ryokan inns. We were at a very interesting inn in a tiny place called Shinchya last night. The proprietress has been serving Walk Japan groups for 30 years and she cheerfully welcomed us. We were treated to an outside pond to soak our feet while sipping some much needed beer in our yukatas ( lightweight kimonos). In typical fashion, we sat down to a sumptuous feast for dinner. The meals have been very good and so varied. I’m struck by the beautiful presentation of each small dish - there is often some pickle, seasonal vegetable tempura, some tofu, sashimi. Last night we even had fried grasshopper. Hmmmmm, a wee bit salty for my taste. At every meal there is miso soup of some kind and rice. [ it is much like China where the rice is meant to fill you up if the other fancier food does not]. What I love even more than the food are the exquisite dishes used to serve each little taste of food. I miss my friend Karen who would know all about the types of ceramics used. So we are eating well. And there is a bit of plum wine going around. Last night the Aussies and the Canadians got into it and had a party. You know what a party- starter Mike can be when he has his Spotify. I’ll enclose a picture of us dancing in those crazy wooden sandals called ceta. Whoever thought that was a sensible shoe design hadn’t walked very far. It’s a wonder no one broke an ankle while swinging to Dancing Queen.
Tomorrow the walking gets even more serious as it is 24 kms with some very big climbs. There is a chance of slightly cooler (27) temps. Hopefully the humidity will also drop. So we’ll bandage up our sore feet, fill the water bottles, grab the poles and head for the Niso hills.
That’s all for now from somewhere on the Nakasendo Way.
Love Heather/ MomRead more