Blog posts
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Wildlife along the Nakasendō
Japan is among other things known for the northern-most living monkey in the world, the Japanese macaque, but there are a lot of other animals that you can hope to encounter, or in some cases that you want to avoid… more
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Geography of the path
Along the way, The Nakasendō meanders across a varied landscape. It passes through deep forests, modern cityscapes, over steep mountain passes, and across countless rivers. All these various parts come with their own set of challenges. In order to summarise… more
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The Edo-Tokyo museum
This museum specialises in the Edo period of the capital, and has exihibitions that might be of specific interest to Nakasendō hikers. First and foremost, they have a life-sized replica of the Nihonbashi bridge as it looked in the early… more
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Transliterations
Is it “juku” or “shuku”? The kanji for post station, 宿, can be pronounced (and then transliterated into English) as either “juku” or “shuku” in Japanese, and you will see both varieties along the journey. These two transliterations are slightly… more
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Post stations
A shukuba, which can be translated to “post station”, or a “post town”, were mostly small towns or villages that served travellers along the road with places to eat, drink, rest, and to spend the night. They had a government… more
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Tech prep before leaving
What preparations are necessary is different for everyone. What to pack? What not to pack (maybe as important!)? What to plan ahead, and what to sort out as you are on the hike? And so on. One thing that most… more
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The layout of the Nakasendō
Researching the old path has been an adventure in itself. There are a lot of versions of the complete route available on the internet, often only subtly different from each other. Sometimes though the various maps and files are starkly… more
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Starting an adventure
To hike the whole distance of the old Nakasendō between Tokyo and Kyoto has been on my bucket list for over a decade. In 2015 I hiked between a handful of the more famous post stations of the path, from… more