Blog posts
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39. to 41. Suhara to Midono
I rained *a lot* during the night when I stayed in the minshuku in Suhara-juku. My weather app even sent me flood warnings for the area… But a lot of rain brings another interesting change except for making everything wet.… more
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37. to 39. Fukushima to Suhara
This day was a sometimes fantastic hike, and at other times rather hard on the psyche. I started off in Kiso-Fukushima, hiked via Agematsu-juku and ended up in Suhara-juku at the end of the day. On the positive side of… more
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34. to 37. Narai to Fukushima
The hike of the day had two main themes: the Torii pass between Narai-juku and Yabuhara-juku; and the Kiso river. The first leg for the day was “just” the hike from the Narai river valley across the ridge and down… more
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32. 33. and 34. Seba to Narai
The path is mostly along the Narai river valley this day. Heading out from Seba-juku southwards deeper into the valley where the traditional Kisoji starts would have been a milestone in itself. Unfortunately it poured with rain. So while I… more
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30. to 31. Shimosuwa to Shiojiri to Seba
Shimosuwa-shuku is an interesting place. It is situated right on the north shore of the rather large lake Suwa, and it has an utter abundance of natural hot springs. It even has so many hot springs that there are several… more
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Interlude: The Early Nakasendō, 初期中山道
This day the hike didn’t go along the classical Nakasendō from Shimosuwa towards Shiojiri, but followed what is known as the Early Nakasendō. At the very start of the Tokugawa regime after the battles of Sekigahara in 1600, they started… more
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Moar wildlife
The hike today followed the Early Nakasendō instead of the “normal old Nakasendō”. There will be a post about that as well as usual, also explaining what the Early Nakasendō actually is. But these wild stretches of mountain roads I… more
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29. The Wada pass
The big one. The length of this leg is about 22 kilometres, but the pass itself is a gruelling hike uphill from Wada-shuku for almost 800 metres, and then down a bit more than 800 metres, reaching the post town… more
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Signs along the Nakasendō
The Nakasendō has a bewildering amount of different kinds of designs and looks for the signs, markers and stones along the way. It’s not so easy either that a specific section only has of one type of design, although that… more
