Kiso Valley

Kiso Valley was one of my favorite places ever. (I mean, just look at this photo).

Day 10 - Kiso Valley

To Wikipedia it a little bit, the Kiso Valley is a geographical area that centers on the valley of the upper portions of the Kiso River in the southwestern part of Nagano Prefecture in Japan. It is a V-shaped valley with a length of approximately 60 km that follows the river as it flows from north by northwest to south by southwest into Gifu Prefecture.

The main towns that are visited in the Kiso Valley are Tsumago and Magome along the historic Nakasendo Route. The Nakasendo ( meaning "path through mountains") was one of the two means of transportation between Edo and Kyoto. It contrasted with the other main transportation route at the time, the Tokaido, which ran along the seashore. The post towns came to be as the route could only be taken on foot, and existed as a resting place for travelers.

These photos were taken around the Kiso Valley, specifically in Tsumago and Magome.

We stayed at the Daikichi Ryokan, a traditional Japanese ryokan (inn) with exceptional food (the best of all the trip).

Walking into the ryokan, the first thing to do was to take off our shoes. We were lucky cause the innkeeper lady who welcomed us spoke a lot of English, and she gave us slippers to use while in the ryokan. The room was very simple, with a table in the middle, a television, an AC unit (that was really needed overnight because the rooms get pretty cold), two mats with linens, and two bath towels that were really small (fortunately we had ours).

Before dinner, we decided to take a Japanese Bath. I'm writing this and I was hoping I could have one right now. This was not just a simple bath. My partner hates baths, but I told him he needed to try it and he was impressed with how good it felt afterward. Trust me, if you're there, just try it.

Dinner was served at 7 pm. We sat on the floor with other guests. The menu was river fish that we could eat with the spine (it was all soft), tempura vegetables, fried crickets, and other proteins.

After dinner, we made our beds (our pillows were made out of rice and surprisingly comfortable!) and slept on the floor with the sounds of the mountains. Such a cliché, but it was magical to look at the sky and see so many stars.

Day 11 - Nakasendo Trail

Next day we woke up revitalized, ready for our hike through the Nakasendo trail.

Breakfast was served at 7:30 am, and it was as amazing as the evening's dinner before. Grilled salmon, poached egg with some miso sauce, rice with miso paste, miso soup, and a salad. So gooooood, and the perfect breakfast for our hike.

Unlike the day before, the sun was shining for us today. It was still very early, around 8 am, the stores did not open until 9.30 am, the perfect conditions to start a hike.

I remember being terrified because was scared of encountering bears that live around there, but I read that most of them don’t live there anymore and are moving more to the north.

Nevertheless, I would ring all the bells we found along the trail (and I would ring them loud). Yes, they have bells along the trail to let the bears know you’re coming. Because they don’t usually like to interact with humans, they keep away when they hear the sound of the bells.

We ascended the mountain through the forest and we didn’t see anyone for the first few hours. Halfway through, we stopped at a small house with a local man who serves tea to hikers. We sat by the fire while drinking tea and played with his cute dog. Then we continued on to Magome.

It is an 8 kilometer hike and by the end, the weather began to feel warmer and warmer. Luckily, if you do Tsumago to Magome, you will start by ascending the mountain, but almost at the end you'll start to descend.

When we arrived at Magome, there were so many people there, compared to what Tsumago looked that morning! There were big groups preparing themselves to start the trail from Magome to Tsumago, very happy we decided to go early in the morning.

On the streets of Magome, the stores were already open (it was around 10 am) and there was so much street food, roasted chestnuts, grilled rice, pork buns, ice cream, etc. At the end of the street, there was a coffee shop named Hillbilly we really liked, that we’d heard about the night before, at dinner, from a nice Australian couple that was staying at the same Inn. So, thank you for the tip!