Japan: the Nakasendo and the Kiso Valley

Arrive in Tokyo

Tokyo Haneda or Narita airport to your hotel near Shinjuku station

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Tokyo
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

We stay by Shinjuku because tomorrow's train to the mountains leaves from there, so the morning starts with a short walk rather than a cross-city transfer with suitcases.

Après-midi

The afternoon is yours to rest or take a first look at the city: the free observation decks of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building are a few minutes' walk away, and the narrow lanes of Omoide Yokocho, beside the station, fill with grill smoke as the light goes. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the week: how the walking days work, what goes in your daypack, how your suitcase travels ahead of you, and how to behave in a minshuku and its bath.

Soir

Then we walk to a welcome dinner at an izakaya nearby.

Compris

• Pick-up at Tokyo Haneda (HND) or Narita (NRT) airport
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner at an izakaya near Shinjuku

By train to Matsumoto

Tokyo (Shinjuku) by the Azusa limited express to Matsumoto

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Matsumoto
• En train

Matin

After breakfast we walk to Shinjuku station for the Azusa limited express, about two hours and forty minutes to Matsumoto, with reserved seats. The line runs west past Hachioji, through the vineyards of the Kofu basin and up into Nagano, with the Southern Alps and the Yatsugatake peaks off to the side on a clear day. Our own vehicle and driver meet us at Matsumoto station and stay with the group to the end of the trip; from here your suitcase rides with them.

Après-midi

Lunch is Shinshu soba, the buckwheat noodles this mountain prefecture is known for. In the afternoon your guide walks you through Nakamachi, a street of old storehouses with white plaster walls and black-and-white tiled lattice, and across the Metoba River to Nawate, a lane of small stalls by a shrine. The castle waits until tomorrow's opening, when it is quiet. The rest of the day is free: Matsumoto is the hometown of the artist Yayoi Kusama, and the city art museum holds a large collection of her work.

Compris

• Azusa limited express from Shinjuku to Matsumoto, reserved seats
• Soba lunch in Matsumoto
• Nakamachi and Nawate streets with your guide

Activités en option

• Matsumoto City Museum of Art

Matsumoto Castle at opening, a night in Narai

Matsumoto Castle, then south to Kiso-Hirasawa and Narai-juku

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Narai
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

After lunch in Narai we hop a few minutes to Kiso-Hirasawa, a town of lacquerware makers, to visit a workshop. Back in Narai, the day visitors leave by late afternoon, and your guide walks you down the empty street to the Kiso Ohashi, an arched bridge of local cypress.

Soir

Dinner is at our inn.

Compris

• Matsumoto Castle at opening with your guide
• Drive to Narai-juku
• Lunch in Narai
• Lacquer workshop visit in Kiso-Hirasawa
• Late-afternoon walk along Narai's street to the Kiso Ohashi bridge
• Dinner at the inn in Narai

Over the Torii Pass to Yabuhara, on to Tsumago

Walk Narai to Yabuhara over the Torii Pass, then drive by Kiso-Fukushima to Tsumago

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tsumago
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

The vehicle meets us at Yabuhara for the half hour to Kiso-Fukushima, where we have lunch and visit the site of the Fukushima Sekisho, one of the main checkpoints on Edo-period roads. Then it is about an hour down the valley to Tsumago for two nights in a family-run minshuku, and a walk along the street after the coaches have gone.

Compris

• Walk the Nakasendo from Narai to Yabuhara over the Torii Pass with your guide (about 6 km)
• Sit-down lunch in Kiso-Fukushima
• Fukushima Sekisho checkpoint site
• Evening walk along Tsumago's street
• Minshuku dinner in Tsumago

Magome to Tsumago

Tsumago by road to Magome-juku, then walk the Nakasendo back to Tsumago

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tsumago
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

The novelist Shimazaki Toson, whose Before the Dawn is set here, was born in Magome, and the Toson Memorial Museum stands on the site of his family's inn. From the top of town the trail climbs gently to the Magome Pass at 801 m, then runs mostly downhill through forest and hamlets, past the Odaki and Medaki waterfalls and the old tateba teahouse at Ichikokutochi, where volunteers serve green tea when it is open. It is about 8 km, three to three and a half hours with stops.

Après-midi

Lunch is in Tsumago, then your guide takes you round the Waki-honjin Okuya, an inn for travelling officials rebuilt in cypress in 1877. In 1971 Tsumago's residents agreed not to sell, rent or pull down their old houses, which is why the street still looks as it does.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are free.

Compris

• Magome-juku and the Toson Memorial Museum
• Walk the Nakasendo from Magome to Tsumago over the Magome Pass with your guide (about 8 km)
• Sit-down lunch in Tsumago
• Waki-honjin Okuya with your guide
• Minshuku dinner in Tsumago

Down to Nagiso, over the hills to Takayama

Walk Tsumago to Nagiso, then drive by Route 256, Gero and Route 41 to Takayama

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Takayama
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

Early morning is the best time in Tsumago: the street is empty and the first light comes over the ridge onto the wooden fronts. After breakfast we walk the last stretch of the Nakasendo on this trip, about 3.5 km and an hour to an hour and a half, from Tsumago over a low rise and down through the houses of Nagiso to the Kiso River. Our vehicle meets us by the Momosuke Bridge, a long wooden suspension bridge from 1922 just north of Nagiso station. From Nagiso we drive west over the hills on Route 256 and north up the Hida River on Route 41 to Takayama, about 120 km and two and a half hours with a stop.

Après-midi

Lunch is on the way in Gero, a hot spring town with free public foot baths. We reach Takayama mid-afternoon. Your guide walks you through Sanmachi Suji, three parallel lanes of dark-timbered merchant houses, to a sake brewery marked by a ball of cedar branches over the door, for a tasting.

Soir

The evening is free in Takayama.

Compris

• Walk the Nakasendo from Tsumago to Nagiso with your guide (about 3.5 km)
• Momosuke Bridge in Nagiso
• Sit-down lunch in Gero
• Sanmachi Suji old town walk with your guide
• Sake tasting at a Takayama brewery

Takayama: the market, the Jinya and a free afternoon

A day on foot in Takayama

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Takayama

Matin

Before breakfast, walk down to the Miyagawa morning market along the river, where farmers set out mountain vegetables, pickles, miso and sweets from about 7 am. At 8:45 we are at the door of Takayama Jinya when it opens: the government house from which officials of the shogun ran the Hida region after 1692, with its rice storehouse, tatami halls and courtyard garden. From there your guide takes you across the old town to Sakurayama Hachiman-gu and the Takayama Festival Floats Exhibition Hall, where some of the town's carved and lacquered festival floats, wheeled out each spring and autumn, are on show between festivals.

Après-midi

Lunch is on your own: try Hida beef on a skewer from a street stall or a bowl of Takayama ramen. The afternoon is free. You might walk the Higashiyama course past temples on the wooded hillside east of town, or visit Hida no Sato, an open-air museum of farmhouses moved here from the mountains.

Soir

In the evening we sit down together to a farewell dinner of Hida beef.

Compris

• Miyagawa morning market with your guide
• Takayama Jinya at opening
• Sakurayama Hachiman-gu and the Takayama Festival Floats Exhibition Hall
• Farewell Hida beef dinner

Activités en option

• Hida no Sato open-air museum

Shirakawa-go and Kanazawa

Takayama to Shirakawa-go, then Kanazawa, ending at Kanazawa station

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

It is then about an hour and a quarter to Kanazawa, where lunch is at Omicho Market, the city's food market since the Edo period, with seafood from the Sea of Japan. After an hour for lunch, your guide takes you through Kenroku-en for about an hour and a half: ponds, stone lanterns and old pines shaped by the Maeda lords, one of the three great gardens of Japan. The trip ends at Kanazawa station at about 4 pm. The Hokuriku Shinkansen reaches Tokyo in about two and a half to three hours, and Kyoto in a little over two hours with a change at Tsuruga.

Compris

• Shirakawa-go: the Shiroyama viewpoint, Ogimachi village and the Wada House
• Sit-down lunch at Omicho Market, Kanazawa
• Kenroku-en with your guide
• Drop-off at Kanazawa station