ichirizuka
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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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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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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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23. – 28. Iwamurada to Wada
This day stretched across several old post stations, from Iwamurada where I spent the night, via Shionada, Yawata, Mochizuki, Ashida, and Nagakubo before finally reaching Wada-shuku. While the distances between the post stations on the Higashi Shinshu Nakasendō is on… …more
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19. 20. 21. and 22. From Karuizawa to Iwamurada
Today was a series of shorter legs combined to a longer stretch. Starting out in Karuizawa-shuku, which is sort of a vacation spot for rich people nowadays, the path led me through Kutsukake-shuku, and then onwards to Oiwake-shuku, Otai-shuku, and… …more
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17. and 18. Across the Usui pass
There isn’t just one highlight to this day’s hiking, but rather a lot! The most obvious one is the part that crosses the Usui pass, but there were a lot of other really cool things to see along the rest… …more
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14. and 15. and 16. Itahana to Annaka to Matsuida
Heading out from Takasaki is where we leave the Kanto plain, or rather the Karasu river is a great boundary for this just at the western edge of the city. On the one side, there is a flat and mostly… …more
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11. and 12. and 13. Honjō to Shinmachi to Kuragano to Takasaki
The daruma dolls as featured above are a type of prayer dolls that are a speciality to Takasaki. When you buy them neither of the pupils have been painted. Your job is to paint a pupil in the left eye… …more