Walk along a historically significant road and step on the original ancient stones from Kyoto to Tokyo. Nakasendo Trail means "a road through the mountains," which was one of the main arterial roads during the Tokugawa shogunate period. It connects the main destinations of Honshu, Japan.
Today, most Nakasendo is primitive road and was once 533 kilometers long. It crosses Lake Biwa from Kyoto, rises to the mountain in Kanbara Town, traverses the plains near the southern Japanese Alps, extends to the Kiso Valley, and turns south across the Kanto Plain to Edo. The route connects 67 post office towns, all of which are evenly spaced rest stops. Unfortunately, it is not practical to walk the entire Nakasendo Trail because many sections have been damaged. Still, there are enough sections that have been preserved to provide a feeling of living in the Edo period of Japan.
The beginning of the Edo period marked the moment when Japan entered the two hundred years of the Tokugawa family, and in order to better rule the various feudal lords of Japan, so that the 500,000 elite had a more powerful deterrent, Tokugawa Ieyasu began a major road construction, so once Japan was to have five major arteries: Tokaido, Nikko Street, Oshu Street, Nakayama Road, Koshoku Street they all lead to today's Tokyo. Among them was the Nakayama Road.
Nakayama-do has been cut into several pieces by history, but enough sections have been preserved to give travelers walking on the road the feeling of returning to Edo. From Kyoto stay for a while, then turn around and you can see the shrine and through the arrival garden, see the geisha, and walk through the three avenues on, is the starting point of Nakasendo.
In Hosokudate lodging, you can stay at 17 actual hotels. The trail will gradually derive from the forest, and gradually you will come in contact with the core of this 533 km, the Kiso Valley. After climbing up the steep Mago Pass (named after the travelers who abandoned their horses here to cope with the mountainous terrain ahead)
Magojuku, Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture → Tsumagojuku, Minamikiso Town, Nagano Prefecture
The Nakayama Road is now intermittent, but the one from Magonjuku to Tsumagojuku actually retains a strong old Edo style at present, and the scenery along the way is pleasant. From Magonjuku to Tsumagojuku, you only need to go over one mountain.
After arriving at Magome Station, you will surely find along the Nakayama Road that this is the Japanese countryside, the air is pure, the road is quiet and idyllic, and the stone path slowly appears on the way to the walking trail. In the south of Mago-juku, there is a "Sheng-zheng" structure near the waterwheel hut, which is a common defense structure in Japanese castle.
A traditional Edo-era house from Tsumagojuku is a museum of the present, a building that uses a lot of Japanese cypress and now serves as a museum to show the public what life was like in the old days.
The road ends at Nihonbashi Bridge in Tokyo, a bridge made of stone in the style of Western architecture that once marked "Ground Zero" on Japan's national highway network.
Spring from March to May to see the wildflowers and cherry blossoms. Fall from August to October to see the hues of autumn leaves.
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