Day 16: ﻿So it begins…

After hearing the horror stories from the previous group that split off for our multi-day hike yesterday, we were preparing ourselves for what would surely be a grueling hike that would leave us completely exhausted by the end. Little did we know, the troubles would begin before we even started our hike. As we pulled into the station where our hike would start, we were met with heavy rains that would have us soaked only moments after being out in it. Some of us didn’t even believe it would rain and were caught off guard without any rain jackets or other protection from the cold, unforgiving sprays of rain water. Many of us had to buy rain ponchos and umbrellas from the store in the station to make sure we could keep ourselves, and our packs we would have to live out of for the next day, as dry as possible.

The route we would start that day is a part of 中山道 (Nakasendo) which translates to “central mountain trail.” 中 meaning middle, 山 meaning mountain, and 道 meaning route. The route was famously used as a communications route between Kyoto and Tokyo during the Edo Period. It was one of five routes nominated as official communication routes between the Shogun and the other Daimyo. This route passed through several towns and other smaller routes which would all be incorporated into the route. The name of the route was officially made to be Nakasendo in the year 1716.

Our hike officially began in Nakatsugawa, where we had initially gotten off the train and bought our new defenses against the rain’s onslaught. After some confusion as to where the trail officially begun in Nakatsugawa, we eventually figured our way onto the actual Nakasendo trail and started the hike towards the small town of Magome. After a few grueling hours in the rain and trying not to fall on our butts during the more slippery sections of the trail, we eventually reached Magome. We had a small break there, where we could rest and have a small snack as a late lunch. From there, we continued through the trail towards Tsumagojuku. However, we weren’t going to be going all that way quite yet. Instead, we stopped in Otsumago, where we would stay for the night and resume in the morning.

The route itself provided us with some beautiful scenery of the mountains and forests in the background. While somewhat masked by the cloud coverage, the view was still absolutely stunning. The route was also notable for it’s paths in some areas which were marked by having white and gold pebbles in the pavement to let hikers know they were following the right path. We also encountered a few small shrines throughout the trail, including an Ishibotoke that turned out to be the only one enshrined to the the path of Nakasendo itself, while most others were mainly pagodas enshrined to the passing of horses on the trail.

We stayed in the local bed & breakfast called Tsutamuraya, which features traditional Japanese housing and meals with fresh, locally gathered ingredients. We were all quick to take a dip in the Onsen to wash away the pains of the hike and refresh ourselves for the remainder of the night. Though with the exhaustion of the hike, we were also quick to go to sleep, knowing we would continue our trek through more rain again very early the following morning.