A guide to walk through some of the most well preserved post towns along the Nakasendo.
The Nakasendo is the former highway that connected Kyoto to Tokyo during the Edo period (1603-1868). At this time the Feudal lords were forced to do a multi-week commute between the two cities. The ruling family forced the lords to spend every other year in Tokyo with their entire household. This was a nightmare of a yearly commute!
The Nakasendo is a 540km route with 69 post towns along the route. Commuting lords and samurai would stop at the post towns to rest and eat during their long journey.
Currently, many of the post towns have been modernized with the introduction of the railway line. A lot of the original paths used by the lords and samurai have been converted into roads.
The Nakasendo is a beautiful multi-day hike between post towns. You can use luggage forwarding services to hike bag free. Drop off your bags at the information centre in either Magome or Tsumago for easy baggage transfer between the towns for 1000 yen. Some hotels will ship bags out from the lobby. Check with your hotel.
I personally just shipped my bags between larger cities and carried a day pack with a couple changes of clothes in it.
How to get to the first post town
From Nagoya station take the JR Shinano line that comes every hour to Nakatsugawa. The train ride will take 50 mins. The conductor might come and check your tickets while the train is moving so make sure to have them ready to show!
Path back to station. Passes through cute gardens with a pretty canal running along side it.
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How to get to the trailhead
From Nakatsugawa take the M (Magome) or the S (Sakashita) bus. These buses are CASH ONLY. Make sure you have change. You pay on your way out. Double check google for up to date fare information.
Option 1 (extra hike):
Get off at Ochiai stop and walk over the pedestrian bridge towards Ochiai-juku. 10 minute bus ride.
Option 2 (easy + save time):
Take the bus directly to Magome (Note: you can only take the M (Magome) bus in this case). 30 minute bus ride.
Gorgeous gallery offering dyeing classes and other crafts.
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Hike to Magome-juku
Follow signs that say 旧中山道 to take the Nakasendo trail towards Magome. Google maps also takes you along the Nakasendo if you use the direction function. This hike takes about 1.5 hours with a moderate incline. Very quiet hike along small hamlets and forests.
The most popular tourist post town along the Nakasendo. The hills are pretty steep so be prepared to walk hard. Lots of cute shops and stops along the way.
Google says this takes 1.5 hours walking along 旧中山道. At a brisk pace with only some stops, I was able to do this part in just over 2 hours. I would recommend giving yourself at least 3 hours to fully enjoy all the sights along the trail.
This part of the hike has moderate to steep incline with some sections in dark remote forests. There are bears that live nearby, bear bells are provided along the trail. If you are hiking alone you can stop at the tourist information booth in the post towns to rent a small bell to put on your bag. The more recent videos of this hike look much more popular than when I went so bears might be less of a concern. When we did this hike we saw a total of 3 people during the entire 2 hours.
Two waterfalls side by side with a small rock outcropping between them. The story goes that noble couples who were to be married and were traveling along the Nakasendo, would stop and take a cold shower separately to calm themselves down.
My absolute favorite stay in Japan. 135,000 yen each. Comes with Breakfast and Dinner. Private onsen available. Shared toilets. Hosts speak English, Italian, and Spanish.
When I visited at the tail end of Covid they were only filling up two rooms. So there was only 4 of us staying at the inn that night. Looks like they typically accept up to 20 people in the inn a night.
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Hike to Nagiso-juku
This section of the Nakasendo was a very easy hike with minor incline and mostly all paved paths. You spend most of the 1 hour hike passing through small hamlet towns. The Castle ruins trailhead is off of the main Nakasendo path, watch out for a sign that points towards the Castle Ruins. It says Castle Ruins in English below the Kanji.
A cool hike up to a view point of Tsumago and Nagiso. Narrow winding paths that were used as defense to protect the castle from invasion. No actual ruins at the top, just a cleared spot.
I included a screen shot of google street view showing the entrance to the castle ruins trailhead.
Beautiful bridge with a cute river park underneath that's great to wait for your train at. Train station is very close by, maybe a 2 minute walk away.
The host at Fujioto recommended checking out this very old wooden suspension bridge. Unfortunately we had to run to catch the next train so we missed it.
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From here you have a couple options:
Easy option:
Take the train (either Chuo line or JR Shinano) to Fukushima-juku.
Challenging (+1 day) option:
Hike to Nojiri from Nagiso and then catch the train from that town.
Hike to Nojiri
This is considered a challenging hike with some beautiful sections. Total hiking time is about 6 hours. Grab take out dinner in town then hike to Hostel Yui-an for 1 hour. Continue on in the morning towards Nojiri.
This is a small preserved post town. Best visited as a quick stop along the train line or at a ryokan overnight. There are lots of restaurants and affordable ryokans here. The highlight of the town is the public footbath that's located on the edge of the Kiso river.
Ryokan with Western and Japanese style rooms. Private or shared bath options. Full plan includes dinner and breakfast. I trust their website more than booking.com for rates.
Quiet rock garden in Buddhist temple with small tea garden. 500 yen entry.
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Hike to Narai-juku
Hop back on the train and head to Yabuhara Station and walk north towards the starting point of the hike.
The torii pass is the section of the Nakasendo hike between Yabuhara and Narai. This section is very steep and strenuous. The hike takes about 2.5 hours to complete.
Ryokan with dinner and breakfast included. Private onsen baths. 12,800 yen per person. Or 14,800 yen if one room per person. Books out extremely early.
Ryokan 10,500 yen per person or 11,400 yen per person if staying alone. Breakfast and dinner included. Shared bath time, available to reserve for individual family with notice.
Hi, I'm an Arborist from Canada. I'm a cozy traveler who likes searching for hidden gems and cool trees. You'll find café, food, garden, and easy hike recommendations here.
