Tsumago and the Nakasendo
Mom and Dad took us to hike the Nakasendo in Nagano last weekend. The Nakasendo was an old route leading from Kyoto to Tokyo during Edo Japan, that was used by the shogunates and samurai went travelling to Tokyo for their annual trip there. We started our hike in a tiny town called Tsumago, off the railline (this is a big deal in Japan), it was nearly abandoned, and as a result was not modernized with the rest of Japan, so it is still as it was hundreds of years ago. We stayed in a tiny inn off the main (only) street, and walked around the town by night, lit only by lanterns, when we arrived. The next day, we hiked from Tsumago to the next post town of Magome, in Gifu-ken. It was really cool, as we passed through tiny, tiny towns and old teahouses, as well as through bamboo forests on cobblestone paths that the samurai used. It was one of our neatest experiences in Japan so far, so we were very happy that Mom and Dad had read about it, because we had never heard anything about it!
posted by Zachary and Jane @ 8:26 PM
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