Narai and hiking two days the Nakasendo trail

Yeeeeeeeeeees! so time to go hiking :) I have been thinking of this hike for a long while! It is the Nakasendo hike and it used to be the old route from Kyoto to Tokyo where there are many, many small posts town, some of which have been preserved over the years. This hike is more of a cultural one where each village has something in particular! :)

So super happy I left Tokyo with direction to Narai which is the start.... I got there after another beautiful train ride in among the mountains and with views of Mt Fuji from the other side and I was in love with the place at the minute! At the train station the man gave me a map and I collected my first post town stamp... yes, in Japan, there is a lot of this old stamps collection. Love it!

I came out of the station to find this old, traditional Japanese village.. WOW!!!! I felt I was going back in time.. all little wooden houses that have been preserved for years. Some are houses and some little typical shops where you can get from tea, food ice cream to cute chopsticks. I love all this minimalist style, where all is clean and neat :) 

I found my first ryokan, Iseya... wowwww, loved it! small Japanese house with different rooms, a small perfect Japanese garden, a hot bath (type of Onsen). In the room I had green tea and one of the red bean paste sweet! Simple, just a small wooden table, small cushion and that's it! Love it!

I drop my staff and decided to walk to Kiso Hirasawa which is the town before and then look at Narai on the way back. It was an easy short walk, and Hirasawa was a bit under construction. The fun thing was to find that they have this kiddy animal faces in the post to signalize that there is work in progress, jajaja 

Hirasawa is less touristy/protected but still beautiful and here I can already feel the people are much nicer, smile and relax  than in the city! :) on the walk back I crossed a few groups of kids coming back to school... and they are fun as all the kids and also more sociable than in Tokyo.. I like this ''human connection''

Back in Narai I walked all of it, a rare place with lots of Buddhas status and a hidden temple, the wooden bridge and the many temples..all so so nice! I had to be back at 6 for my first Ryokan dinner.. not to miss!

Yummy! it was like a 10 course dinner, each small piece perfectly done and looking beautiful! all these flavors are amazing. I really enjoyed each piece and finished almost all of it :) after I put on my Yukata and took a bath... really feeling Japanese :) loved it! I prepared my bed with the tatami and fall asleep :)

The next day I had a wonderful Japanese bfas with fish, veggies, soup and things i had no idea what they were, but they were all great :) and with that I started the hike to Kiso Fukushima :)

The start was going through the Torji Pass... suuuuper easy...really... and I didn't cross anyone. Still beautiful to walk and find temples here and there. And the green is just so green, I will not get tired of saying this :) 

Once I passed to the other side, I have to say there was a bit of a boring bit of walk over the route... a couple I met the day before told me about it and I know as I read about it so I was ready for it... yes, not my favorite, but so be it, the views were anyone incredible and its part of the adventure :) 

I managed to get out of the rod and into small and beautiful villages, with little house all with nice decorations, with plans and these metal hangers.. seems they hang the clothing outside. On an intermediate village there was a ''museum house'' which was open... it felt like entering a place with no permission as it was empty but I went for it.. soo nice, really so minimalistic, clean, fresh!

On the way, I did get lost but this was great because in that part it was full of rice fields and  for some strange reason I just love rice fields views :) so it was the best part :) then I walked back and found the right path, down a bit of a forest :) nice! I passed other villages, a school with playful kids and made it to Kiso Fukushima after 6 hours of happy walk :)

This was a very small place, with a river passing alone and some coffee and team places. I went for a coffee and a bit of a rest before I found my new Ryokan.... 

Here it was great! i got there, no signs, anythings o it took me a while to find it and the woman, who was nice, really didn't speak a word of English. We tried for a while with signs but she ended up calling this guy who works in the tourist office and helps them with tourists that don't speak Japanese. So cool! he was my '' translator'' for free! they showed me around the place and then I had to leave as check in was only a few hours later. Fine..off to keep walking and discover this village! As the day before, I had my Yukata and bath.. so cool dinner this time. I got salad and rice in the 7 eleven and ate in my room... only then I realised I had walked so much and it was time to seep! :)

I decided to change my plans and remove one of the hiking days after talking with the guy of the tourist office he said that day was 90% in the road and he didn't recommend it, so I took his point and took a train to start this second hike day in Nojiri. And it was a rainy day, but hey! it didn't seem to rain so I stop in this place, ask for a map.. the guy looked at me as if I was crazy.. got this Japanese map and started walking.. for good Google Maps is en EN,I have to say without this I would have gotten seriously lost!

Nojiri is tiny! it is known for its curvy street, which is nice. I was looking into the houses and found a woman who was painting some beautiful flowers, we had a quick ''chat'' and I continued! 

It was quite charming to walk among the clouds, it is nice as well.. and then, yes, well it started to rain and i was in the middle of nowhere! If you know me, you know of all  the different weathers rain is not my thing. But I put my ''rain jacket'', a smile and kept going... and I have to say I had fun :) 

And after the storm there is always sunshine :) once I reached Nagiso the sunshine was back and became super warm. Also the path got very beautiful with some bamboo forest and nice flowers! :) I loved this part!

I made it to Tsumago, which is similar to Narai and had a stop to get some lunch. I got these noodles with some white stuff I have o clue what it was, but was good! :) really liked the meal and the place. 

A big group of Japanese people came in, they were from there are and were around. They were so friendly, invited me for a drink and wanted me to stay. But I told me Ihad to walk the Magome pass ad if I would not go it would get dark in the mountains and I didn't want that :) they thought I was crazy walking there, like everyone else, jaja but fine, they say enjoy! and I left super happy to the Magome pass... this is the part of the Nakasendo that most people hike, so the signs were very well written and all over :)

The hike was stunning, rice fields, bamboo paths, waterfalls, green :) it just makes me very happy to walk in these places! ha! and lots of pine trees! I started seeing lots of big bells along the way but had no clue what they were for until I went closer to read.... warning, bears, ring hard to avoid them! okkkkkkk... mmmmm I really didn't want to see any bear so I started ringing all the bells as they would pass... yes.. a bit scared... then bear warning signs.... luckily I haven't seen any :)

And I made it to Magome past 5 PM, starting with an amazing terrace and a great view :) wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, so nice!!!!!!!!! Magome is on a hill so walked down observing all the little houses, trees and shops and decided to take the last bus to go to Kyoto.. this left about an hour, to relax and contemplate the sunset among the rice fields... which was the best way to end two days of hiking and adventure in this special path :)

Initial step to get me to Kyoto was to take the bus.... a full explanation here... really?!? as I think I mentioned before, fast bullet trains but a prehistoric bus system :) jajaj I was the only passenger in the bus, was fun to try to talk with the driver :) 

Got to the station to take a normal train and then change to my first Shinkansen experience... really, they look like planes, really nice, here it doesn't feel like going to the future :)

I made it to Kyoto, walk 30 mins to the hotel and very exhausted and very happy fall asleep :)