Kiso Valley

Today's place to daydream about is the Kiso Valley, an oasis of Japanese tradition along the old post road from Tokyo to Kyoto. The road is called the Nakasendo. The modern road through the valley sometimes follows the old post road and sometimes takes a different route, and the unimproved sections of the old Nakasendo are now popular routes for walking between historic towns. 

Most popular of all is a 5 mile (8 km) hike from Magome to Tusmago. Magome is a delightful-looking little town with many traditional buildings.

More Magome.

The trail climbs up over a significant ridge between two river valleys, and parts of it look like this.

The ridge is national forest land.

You'll also pass numerous Buddhist monuments, because this whole valley was and is a site of Buddhist and Shinto pilgrimage.

Toward the end of the trail is a famous old tea house.

And then down into Tsumago, another delightful town.

Working water wheel in Tsumago.

The other popular section of the Nakasendo runs between Narai and Yubahara. Narai is the largest of the historic post towns.

It has a two old houses still furnished in nineteenth-century style and a museum folklore and history, and you can stay in a traditional inn.

Along the trail to Yubahara you will cross this modern bridge, built in the traditional style with no nails or bolts.

But if those trails are too tame for you, you can take on a much more difficult challenge: hiking the pilgrimage trail to Mount Ontake, a route that goes back to the 9th century. You can do this either as a pilgrim or as a tourist on a guided hike; if you don't feel like walking the whole way you can even do much of it by tram. Assuming that my audience is more likely to be touristing, I caution you that you will meet pilgrims in various depths of spiritual study and you should probably leave them alone.

The scenery on the way up the mountain is spectacular, with several waterfalls.

A famous winter site is the Shirakawa ice pillars, a cliff where trickling water forms an enormous sheet of ice.

You will pass several shrines.

These stones are called reijinhi; each commemorates an ascetic sage who trained on the mountain top.

Trail marker from the nineteenth century.

Besides being beautiful, sacred in Shinto, and suggesting to Buddhists a way to reach Pure Land, these waterfalls had the practical function of providing very rigorous showers for ascetic monks.

View from the top, a spiritual experience for almost everyone.

And then, you know, you're in Japan, so you're never really far from civilization, and you can hike back down for dinner