Fukushima to Narai

Today was our last day of walking the Nakasendo Way, with a train to Yabuhara and then a hike from there to Narai where we are staying tonight.

I helped Lynette not give in to time-based planning anxieties by not allowing her to catch the accommodation shuttle that meant we had to be up 30 minutes earlier than necessary just to sit at a freezing cold train station for that 30 minutes. Instead we arrived, bought tickets, and waited less than 10 minutes for the train.

Our hotel breakfast was yet another Japanese feast that was just way too much food for anyone, but we battled through vowing to skip lunch again. I swear these meals would easily feed several people, but maybe I'm finding it too much because I actually stopped eating breakfast a few years ago thanks to Dr Michael Mosley's influence.

The walk from Yabuhara took us over the Torii Pass. This was apparently the most difficult pass for travellers to traverse in the Edo period, but we didn't find it too onerous. It was only about 3.5 kms up to the pass and then 3 kms to Narai. Here we dumped our packs in a locker and walked 2.5 km to the next village of Hirasawa and celebrated the official end of our hike.

It was quite chilly going over the pass and we had could see frost, snow and ice in patches on the road. No bears were encountered due to the diligent ringing of the bear bells and the melodic tinkle of the Ken San bell on Lynette's pack.

We left Yabuhara about 9.30, got to Narai by about 12-ish, and stopped for coffee (and cake) and booked our accommodation for tomorrow night which was the one unplannednight of the trip. That has now ended our unplanned, spontaneity. Order is restored.

Narai has about a kilometre of traditional post-town style shops and houses running down the main street to the train station. We ended up walking its length 4 times over the afternoon, first on way to Hirasawa via the luggage lockers and then wandering up and down waiting for check in time at La Terra, our accommodation, which was not open until 3.30pm. We were passed by three fire trucks on the main street, which wouldn't be remarkable except that each of them was smaller than a Ford Transit. Because all the buildings are wooden, fire and water management are extremely important to the juku towns.

Our accommodation appears to be a small house converted to be a bespoke guest house that is on the expensive end of the places we have booked this trip. As a result is a very well appointed apartment with lots of little luxuries including padded winter yukatas and fluffy winter pyjamas, and not one, not two, but three different slippers to wear in different sections of what is in essence about 14 square metres.

However, our room excitement was relatively short-lived when I used the remote controlled toilet and it wouldn't flush, but did not have a manual flushing lever. So, we had the most digitised toilet on planet earth, and it can't do the one thing it is supposed to be good at. I took the remote back downstairs to chat to Towa-San, he then translates on his phone that we need to fill the tank and gives me a giant oversized cup. So perhaps it hasn't been used in a while.

We have a luxurious bath, an amazing Italian-influenced dinner courtesy of Towa-San who has been at cooking school for a few years. I had venison cooked to perfection. Four courses, and all bellissimo.

And after dinner the toilet investigation continues... Towa-San's offsider came up, and came back and told us it was working. Huzzah. We came back after dinner and couldn't work out how to use it. Lynette was last seen in her provided grey fluffy pyjamas looking like a giant koala standing over the loo taking photos and trying to figure out how to use it, including a manual reset. It has multiple LED light options, a button to make the seat go up and down... Everything except the basics of actual flushing! Sometimes a toilet can be too smart for its own good. I'm killing myself laughing and she may have just told me to f### off. I'm not taking it personally because she is saying it to the toilet too (which sounds like she is having an argument with R2D2 every time it beeps and then does nothing else). 🤣 We will just have to put up with the recalcitrant toilet.Read more