Following in the footsteps of Shoguns and Samurais in Japan's Kiso Valley

 

 Echigoya Ryokan owner Yutaka serves dinner in our room in Narai

We couldn't decide what hurt most -our feet from hiking five miles on the Nakasendo trail once used by Samurai solders to trek between Edo, now Tokyo, and Kyoto - or our backs from sleeping on futons at a 200-year-old Japanese inn in the mountain town of Narai near Nagano.

Following in the footsteps of warriors has it challenges, but also plenty of 21st-century rewards: Think a long soak in a hot bath followed by a 17-dish dinner served in your room while you lounge around in your robe.

The original Nakasendo trail was 330 miles long with 69 post towns operating as resting stops for weary travelers. Today, most hikers walk a five-mile path along the Kiso Road between the towns of Magome and Tsumago, two of 11 local villages, then stay at a guest house at either end.

Narai's main street stretches one kilometer, making it the longest post town in Japan

Unable to find a vacancy in either town. we ventured further by bus and train to Narai, one of the best-preserved but least-visited of the towns with a streetscape filled with shrines and historical buildings now housing cafes, saki breweries, museums, shops and inns.

Yutaka Nagai, our host at the family-run Echigoya, the oldest ryokan (traditional inn) in Narai, showed us to two adjoining rooms furnished with tatami mats, and informed us that we would be his only guests.

The Echigoya Inn

Fetching yukatas (belted robes), he invited us to shower, then relax Japanese-style by soaking in deep tub filled with hot water. A couple of hours later, he served us a dinner of 17 different dishes including three types of fish, two soups, tempura vegetables, several kinds of mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, yams, a savory egg custard saki and beer. 

Creature comforts like this didn't exist in the Edo era (1603-1866) when the Samurai soldiers traveled between Kyoto (the imperial capital) and Edo or Tokyo (the political and economic center) favored by the Shogun military leaders, but the path and towns along the way evoke a feeling of Old Japan.

After a train ride from Nagano, site of the 1998 winter Olympics, we boarded a standing-room only bus to Magome. There we took advantage of a luggage transfer service to take our bags to the tourism office in Tsumago, and began the walk began along an uphill path paved with flat stones. 

Starting the walk along a path of flat stones

The view from Magome

At an elevation of 1,900 feet, Magome opens up views of a forested valley and the Japanese central Alps as the trail begins along a path of flat stones, then wends through the forest on a more rugged path along creeks and waterfalls, reaching a summit of 2,600 feet before descending across boardwalks and bridges to Tsumago. 

The tourist office recommends taking along a “bear bell” to alert the bears to your presence. We saw none, but there are bells tied to posts along the way to ring just in case.

Crossing a road with cars at different intervals, the trail takes walkers through small villages where a man named Owaki invites people to tour his garden, and a shopkeeper at Tateba Tea House pours cups green tea. Funded by the local community and visitor donations, the shop provides a welcome resting place as it would have centuries ago. 

Tatebla Tea House

The Kiso Valley is known for its traditional crafts, which developed partly due to restrictions on logging during the Edo period. The ban on mass logging led to the development of magemono (bentwood crafts), orokugushi (wooden combs), and lacquerware, all found in the shops in Magome, Tsumago and Narai.

Most everything at the Echigoya Inn was made of wooden materials, including the building itself, the cypress wooden bath tub and lacquerware dinner trays. Since Covid, Yutaka only books one party (no more than six people) nightly. The price for two with dinner and breakfast is $200.

Bedroom/dining room and sitting room

Our rooms were spacious - one area for sitting, pictured in the backround, and another for sleeping, in the foreground. The sleeping area was turned into a dining area for dinner and breakfast. The futons and pillows were actually more comfortable than we remember from our last visit to Japan 35 years ago.

Tradition calls for bundling up in a heavy robe for an after-dinner stroll outside, but the mountain air was tool cold the night we stayed, so we tucked ourselves into our futons, and looked forward to breakfast in the morning. Yutaka came at 8:30 a.m. with a hot green tea and 10 different dishes including a Japanese omelette, toasted sea kelp, black beans, sweet potatoes, miso soup cucumbers and spinach

The Cafe Tanakaya

Shops and cafes close early and open late. We were hoping to find coffee before our train back to Tokyo, but even at 9 a.m. nothing was open. When we asked at the tourist office next our inn, the manager offered to call the owner of the cafe across the street. "Good news," he said. "She open for you."  

Happy camper