Our journey over the next couple of days was to experience a small portion of an ancient road, The Nakasendo Way.
The Nakasendo Way was one of 5 major travelling routes through Japan formally endorsed by the shogun and one of two that linked the capitol Kyoto with the city of Edo (Tokyo). This inland route was the favored one between the two cities from 1603 – 1869 as there were no huge rivers to ford.
These roads were vital links controlled by the shoguns and used as communication networks to stabilise and rule the country and get information quickly between provinces. They were also the main trading routes of the time.
Kiso is our destination of the day, it is one of the prettiest portions of the Nakasendo and was one of the 69 staging posts where all travelers were evaluated and their travel passes checked. Looking at the picture of the roadway down from the Alps on the navigation….you can see why Rosie was feeling more than a little green when we got there. Even after a breath of fresh air at this humungeous dam on the way.
Kiso is a small town of about 11,000 in the Nagano Prefecture and is listed as one of the most beautiful villages in Japan. The Kiso River runs through the middle of it and its waters like all those around here are crystal clear, fast flowing and glacial blue from the winter snow melt.
Kiso was one of the largest postal villages on the Nakasendo Way back in ancient times. These are the gates we drove through that you would have passed on horseback or foot for your wooden passport to be stamped at the checkpoint.
This photo lets you see the strategic bottleneck of this checkpoint…no one sneaks in or out of here once you come through the gate.
How do we know this….it was literally recreated for us. We visited the checkpoint and the Japanese lady there selling the ticket for us to enter came out and chatted away in Japanese to us….ummmm, no Japanese, English? Rosie said hopefully. She shook her head and grabbed my hand and lead me to the check point. Next minute The Operator has a plastic Shogun wig on his head, an ancient jacket and is kneeling in front of a desk with passports and stamps on it.
The lady is taking the role of penitant traveller and is kneeling on a stone in front of The Operator presenting a pretend passport whilst bowing deeply. She then made violent stamping gestures that she wanted The Operator to recreate.. Rosie was laughing so hard.
It was awesome, every one tries so hard in this country and is so proud of their history…..it would have been so easy to have an English sign there though…..
This Seikesho (checkpoint) had been running for 270 years during the Edo period (1603-1868) no one was allowed to travel between regions without express permission from the Shogun. The checkpoints were there to ensure legal travel and collect taxes. Checks were further made to ensure the control of ‘inward guns and outward women’.
The Edo government at the time highly restricted importing guns and never allowed women in or out of their provinces. If any of these rules were broken a penalty of death by crucifixion was enforced. In 1869 the checkpoint was broken down by order of the new Meiji government.
Kiso is quirky, small and easily walkable…everything seemed to be shut…it is understandable, it is Sunday. and you are a long way from the big cities now Rosie.
The Kiso hot spring foot bath wasn’t shut though. Tired from a long day walking the Nakasendo Way? or, like Rosie, just plain tired from walking around the town? Whip your socks and shoes off, pull your pant legs up, lift up a board that retains the heat from the natural spring and sit on the edge with your feet in the water. It was so nice and lovely…it started to get a bit crowded so Rosie and The Operator were up and out of there.
Walking around the quiet and deserted town Rosie must say they had great artwork painted on garage roller doors.
Tonight we are staying in Kiso at a traditional Ryokan. This a traditional Japanese Inn that has been part of Japanese culture for centuries. All of the early Ryokans were built on these ancient roads to house travelers as they journeyed between cities.
The rooms all have traditional tatami mats with futons and a sitting area overlooking the beautiful Kiso river. This Ryokan like most has a public bath house, Rosie was quite excited and nervous at the same time. She was so going to give this a go. When we checked in Rosie and The Operator were fitted with our complimentary Yukata to wear and use for our stay. This is a kimono style dressing gown that you can lounge in your room in, or wear it to the bath house.
Check out Rosies post on the use of the Onsen (public bath) in Japanese Musings (will be posted in a few days)….it explains how it all works, it was great fun.
Well, we sure slept well on our futons after the beautiful hot mineral bath…recharged, off we prepared to drive to Magome. From here we where going to hike 7.8 kms of the most scenic part of the Nakasendo Way to our overnight destination of Tsumago.
But it is raining. Again. Heavy vertical rain. Ps – there seems to be no wind in this country, the rain just falls in straight vertical sheets from the sky, like today. ‘Never mind’, said the Operator, ‘we have an hours drive to Magome, it might ease up by then’. It didnt. The Operator then said, ‘I have a cunning plan’. Grumpy Rosie, ‘because the day was ruined by the rain’ waited for the plan, which went like this.
Looking at the map of our hike between the towns the ancient roadway intersects quite a lot with the modern road. The Operator reckoned that we could drive to the points of interest on the trail, park on the side of the road and trek in from the roadside to get the photographic money shots….and feel like being on part of the trail at the same time.
…hmmmm…Rosie was dubious…. but actually ‘The Plan’ was right up Rosies alley…..but let it be noted, if it WAS fine, Rosie WAS all set to hike.
Off we went, turns out ‘The Plan’ was perfect! First stop was Magome, a tiny town built on a hill and surrounded by beautiful rice paddies.
Up the hill we trekked, it certainly was a picturesque tiny town with a pedestrianized main street.
We stopped for coffee and what a shame we couldnt see the beautiful mountain views this town is famous for, the weather had well and truly closed in.
Just out of town was our first stop on the trail….we were leaving the safety of the town behind and entering the woods…. where we had to ‘Beware of Bears’.
Yes, seriously, small black bears roam the forests of Japan. They have bells along the path that you ring before trekking onwards…to the next bell. The noise keeps the bears away. Or, you could have bought a string of bells in Magome to tie around your ankles to continually keep jangling with every step you take, yeah right.
Alot of the ancient path is paved stone, the rest is dirt tramping track, that weaves in and out of the forest, up hills and down dale.
Or, like this part of the path to small twin waterfalls which were gushing with all the rainfall. The Operator parked the car on the roadside where the Nakasendo actually crossed the highway and we walked down the track to the waterfalls.
We met a couple of Aussies wearing back packs that were doing the whole trail today, they, and all their gear looked miserably saturated already.
We drove on and then the Operator pulled over again in the middle of nowhere…there should be a track around here, yes, there was. We walked down it and picked up the Way….walking on for five minutes in the rain Rosie wanted to know what we were going to come across.
Hold on, she sees smoke rising through the trees, there is a little clearing ahead. A largish dark wood hut came into view with smoke billowing out of its chimney.
Rosie and The Operator cautiously approached and peeped in the open door. A man saw us and beckoned us inside saying ‘free tea, free tea’. There were already a couple of people in there so in we went into the dark, smoky, hazy interior. The old man gestured for us to sit down and he scuttled over with a teapot he took off a coal range type fire and poured us a cup each of green tea.
We sat there and drank our tea and chatted to the other soaked trampers. A sign on the table said ‘Free WiFi/ Donation for Tea’, The Operator donated and we were off again. What a quaint wee hospitality stop in the middle of nowhere. Back to the car we tramped.
We were pretty much in Tsumago, our stop for the night, the rain hadnt eased up all day and the mist was rolling in up the river.
The streets of this tiny hamlet were narrow and there wasn’t a soul around. This is a historically protected town and everything is as it was a couple of hundred of years ago. Power poles and wiring are hidden and everything retains its ancient authenticity.
We had a late lunch and were settling into it when the Aussie couple we saw at the waterfall trekked in…they looked like drowned rats and actually went to the toilets and got totally changed into dry clothes before they too had lunch. Lunch was good by the way.
We had booked to stay the night at a small Minshinku…which is like a Japanese B&B. It looks a little intimidating from the outside…Rosie was a little nervous. This is it, the building in the front. We had to identify it as being the right place from the pics on Google maps as the maps of this town were slightly out and there was no English signage.
Well, this was extremely basic and amazingly authentic. Thank god Rosie had slept on a futon before and stayed in some traditional Japanese housing or she would have been totally shocked.
This house has been on this site for well over over two hundred years. It has three rooms which are rented out nightly on a dinner bed and breakfast basis. All of the interior walls in this house were paper sliding doors. A corridor ran around the outside of the rooms and acted just as that, a corridor or an outside deck.
You see in the above picture, our bedroom doors are open and we can see outside to a lovely garden, see the corridor? At night this exterior opening was cover up with portable shutters to enclose the house and shut it up. I know right. Think about it, Yes, the place was draughty. Yes, you could hear everything in the house because of the paper walls. They have full snow here in the winter….it must be freezing in here in winter. Yet it was quite cosy, the tatami floor mats actually hold alot of warmth, especially when you sleep on them. Any how, we couldnt fit our suitcases in the room so we fished out what we would need and watched the rain outside stipple the water of the beautiful garden below and waited for tea time, which was at 6.00pm.
Rosie smells smoke…quite alot of it and it is wafting through the cracks of the paper door. We peeped into the main living area/dining room and there was Nona lighting the fire in the hearth with chestnut shells. The smoke was starting to rise up into the roof chimney, not before it had filled the rest of the room with a smoky haze. Rosie isnt sure if she is lying down blowing on the fire because of her age or to save herself from smoke inhalation…we will go with the later.
At 5.55pm Rosie and The Operator emerged for dinner where we introduced ourselves to the rest of the guests, a couple from Holland and a couple from Italy. Both couples spoke good English and our host spoke 12 English words…to this day I still do not know his name. But what a host he was and what an amazing time we had!
Rosie couldn’t sit on the ground for a couple of hours having dinner with her joints, so she opted for a little stool. Dinner was served and what a feast! This was just the first course out of four! Our Host showed us how to take the entire backbone out of this fish in one go just using chopsticks and pulling on the tail….amazing, and we all did it perfectly!
While we were eating he showed us photo albums of his family who have lived here in this house for at least 5 generations. In the dim lighting of the smoky room he pointed to ancient sepia pictures of his grandfather killing the most mammoth bear ever, smiling ghosts of the past looked out from the pages and it sent a nice tingle to know they were remembered and a part of the story of this house and its legacy.
All of the vegetables were grown in his garden and he has a giant chestnut tree outside that is hundreds of years old, they use the chestnuts a lot in the cooking and he showed how to shell them and how they use the shells for lighting the fire in the hearth, as it gives off a fragrant scent and nothing is wasted here.
The hearth itself was the only form of heating in the house in the old days, now we have gas heaters in our rooms if we need them.
It burned day and night and always had green tea on the go in the teapot. All of our 3 guest bedrooms opened into this area so warmth could be transferred back in the day. They were very aware of errant sparks being a danger to burning the house down and the small fire area has an area of packed dirt around it to discourage sparks. Plus, the fish was the overall guardian….all of these hearths have a fish suspended from the chain…a fish always has his eyes open and never sleeps. It is always watching over the household to prevent fire. Rosie isn’t sure how the fish would alert anyone if there was an emergency…but hey, Rosie loves ancient stories and tradition.
Then, with the sake flowing freely, Our Host did something that sent shivers down my spine…after explaining to us about Japanese Haiku…short poems that are constructed using syllables in a 5/7/5 context. He said that some Ancient Japanese folk songs were continuously running haiku’s. Then he shyly said he was going to sing an old folk song about this area.
Well, the chills started when his rich, strong, unfaltering voice filled the room. It was a song that cut right through you. Rosie, not understanding a word, but just going from the passion and feeling of the singer was sure it was a song that evoked good and sad memories of a time long past, passion and patriotism combined it was a rousing rendition that moved us all.
After that we all turned in for the night, not before the operator had a little poke at the fire and added a handful of chestnut shells.
In the morning after a really good sleep, Rosie was awakened to the smell of smoke again…Nona was out stoking the fire no doubt, if it was anything other than that, the fish would have alerted us Rosie is sure, and it was still 30 mins away from breakfast. The rain had stopped in the night and Rosie was looking forward to a traditional Japanese breakfast. She doesn’t normally do breakfast, and by looking at the table setting….she was about to give it a good go!
What a brilliant time we had here, and what awesome memories. This experience was a little out of Rosie and The Operators comfort zone when we first arrived but we are glad we did it, and it will be one of our best memories of Japan. As we left the house, floorboards creaking, us blinking in the bright sunlight and smelling of chestnut smoke it was like leaving another time zone.
The rain has stopped, and we are about to leave for Takayama! The town Rosie is going to stay in for a month…The Operator has three days there with Rosie to check out the lay of her new land and have a good look around. Bring it on, this is exciting.
