wildlife
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63. to 65. Toriimoto to Echigawa
These two sections of the Nakasendō are at times rather horrible, with hiking along very busy highways that for long stretches have absolutely no pavements. So I have taken a detour to the Hikone castle, which was part of my… …more
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48. to 50. Hosokute to Fushimi
As I left Hosokute-juku, the owners of the ancient inn where I stayed the night graciously posed for a picture. This day meant hiking along two legs again, from Hosokute-juku, via Mitake-juku, to Fushimi-juku. I also hiked about five kilometres… …more
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45. Nakatsugawa to Ōi
The hike today was rather short, just barely over 10 kilometres. This is the shortest I’ll do (except for my rest days) on this trip. I have two reasons for doing such a short walk today. The first is that… …more
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41. to 44. Midono to Nakatsugawa
This hike covers what probably are the most famous and well-known passages along the whole Nakasendō: the Magome pass between Tsumago-juku and Magome-juku, as well as the Ochiai cobblestones (ishidatami) on the leg between Magome-juku and Ochiai-juku. The path towards… …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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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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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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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