Page 1 Japan

Keep up Bill, I am actually enjoying this.

Not out of the village yet.

Our trip to Japan has been interesting on many levels. This first post describes our first day getting to and along a very small portion of the Nakasendo Trail, a route taken by Emperors, various officials and their large entourages between from Sanjo Ohashi in Kyoto to Nihonbashi in the Edo period (the 1600s to mid-1800s), all within the Nagano prefecture. The trail is about 534 kilometres and had, at its most popular time, 69 post-towns along its path.

Tokyo was the starting point of our journey to the first section of the trail, but the prior evening deserves some mention. As you do before, a walk involving stays at Inns along the way. You prepare your backpacks and bundle the remaining clothes you don't need in your main luggage bags.

Clearly, there is a limit to the space for what you think you need to carry in a backpack. We are cautious as we need additional clothes for the evenings and the day after we finish our trek, plus minimal toiletries and all the electronic devices, including a handheld translation device, and their respective electrical adaptors, chargers and cables.

Our main baggage will be sent via a baggage delivery service between our Tokyo hotel and the hotel we will hopefully arrive at in five days’ time. Later that evening, I took the main baggage down to the hotel porter station, and after using a translating device and paying about A$60, the main baggage was stored ready to be picked up the next day.

The packing of both the main baggage and the backpacks took most of the evening after a full day travelling by bus to see Mt Fuji, have a short boat trip on a lake and a cable car ride on a 60 year old system, plus my unsuccessful attempt to download GPS trails for our four-day trek, takes us past midnight and thus into the first of our trekking days. Suffice it to say we get little sleep even once we get into our bed as our minds are too active. Anticipation of our trek, concern about what we packed and did not, and how we would handle the multiple trains and bus travel even before we start our trekking.

I was up at 5:00 am as I still needed to access the PC in our main baggage which may have already been picked up for transportation. I had to try and finish off the GPS task.Luckily I was able to retrieve the PC and download the files but missed breakfast.

We have one local train, one bullet train, another local train and a local bus to catch just to get to the start of the trail. A Japanese Rail app greatly assists us. Lee learnt about the app only the day before. The app provides start and destination with associated start and arrival times, the respective platform numbers at the start station for each of the routes and also provide alternate routes. It is a must-have if you have purchased a JR Rail Pass.

Some of the many pictures we took along the way today in the stations and the trains are at the end of this post. One photo shows the skill of a Japanese office worker sleeping while hanging from a strap during their commute to the office. Our cheeky picture proves that it can be done.

Oh, and while on the last train for that day, I finally sorted out the transfer of Lee’s beloved phone number to another provider. Her provider did not have International roaming. Who knew you need to have an operational phone to receive an SMS code to enable the transfer, which of course we could not do as we were overseas and there was no roaming. We did not know we could not use International roaming until we were overseas. The hoops we went through is deserving of a separate explanation. Lee was very happy as she feared she had lost her phone number.

Our phone number is our life in today's world. This experience also points out that those of us not so sophisticated with technical matters often become unnecessarily anxious about what can be done and not done in the mysterious world of telecom technology. It suffices to say that the experience was testing for all those involved.

Having successfully navigated the JR train app and the train changes involving getting from the arrival platform to the departure platform at two stations, we arrive at Natatsugwa Station.

While we wait for the local bus, I note that there are many other intrepid trail walkers waiting for the same bus. For a moment, I thought we would just be in a group as we all headed off on the trail. That was not the case, as first impressions are often wrong. I also note that our backpacks are larger than the others we see. Oh, the burden we carry is often of our own making.

The local bus to Magome wends its way up narrow mountain roads, and I can't help but recall cycling up the mountains of France up similar narrow roadways.

The other trekkers all seem young and energetic, while Lee and I are tired from lack of sleep, much older and very apprehensive.
We arrive at Magome to actually commence our trek, and the first thing we do is purchase some cold bottled water from one of many kiosks using the coins I have collected so far. Good to lighten the load a little of coin but add much more in water. We filled one of the water pouches we had brought along, which I would carry in my already heavy backpack. To drink from the pouch, I worked out how to bite down with my teeth while sucking water up the tube while walking. No problem once the tube from the pouch is primed.
The first three hundred meters of the trail is like a small town main street and is replete with memento shops- as if we were going to buy any thing to add to our load. No way.

However, we are soon making our way up the well-marked trail. None of the other trekkers are in sight. Presumably, they are trekking much faster than we can. Our backpacks are heavy, and we both need to adjust one or more of the many straps on the backpack so they become more comfortable to wear.

The stone path is deceptively rough as my feet seek purchase around the gaps between adjacent stones, which present an uneven surface. My gaze and attention are on the path. Not ideal when you would rather be taking in the increasingly pretty surroundings of trees and bushes, which I fleetingly sneak a peek at.

The path surface soon changes, and we are then able to talk, walk and take pictures at the same time.

About an hour into the trek, the slope of the ground increases, and Lee needs to pause and catch her breath – more than once. We also monitor our heart rate with our watches, and Lee’s heart rate is about 90% of her maximum heart rate. She needs to rest often, and to her credit, she rests and goes on again and again. Lee enjoys shopping and can last all day trapsing between shops, while I get exhausted and look for the nearest coffee shop. This time she is exhausted and there are no coffee shops. She did extremely well during this portion of the trek and I am very proud of her.

The forest we are walking through becomes increasingly thick, and the variety of plants and trees becomes a feature that requires more pictures and stops – but that is OK. There are many creeks and the occasional waterfall that also becomes a selfie opportunity.
Our backpacks are heavy, and we already think we have packed too much. We wished we had not been so conservative. The weather has been great so far, and I was confident it would stay that way. I would not have packed the extra jumper, the third T-shirt, the shorts, the spare pair of shoes, or even the rain jacket.

We keep walking, and the trail is well-signposted. There is no need for the GPS device yet nor the Satellite Phone and SMS capability, which I purchased for the month, as a backup if we became lost or injured.

Our destination is Tsumago. A small and very authentic village where we will stay the night. We trekked about 10 kilometres over about 3 hours up and down many steps, and it was a great relief to see the outskirts of the town as we exited the thick forest.

We roam the street taking many pictures. An unexpected discovery was the presence of a coffee shop with an espresso machine, and I paid for the coffee with a credit card. We are very glad that we did not have to fight off an Endo-period warrior to secure a modern-day luxury.

It takes Google Maps for us to locate our accommodation which is an Inn run by a lovely elderly gentleman with his daughter’s assistance. The Inn is down an alley off the one and only main street.

The main street is, in many respects, one of the most authentic of the Endo period street scapes we will encounter. The pictures do not do it justice. The buildings’ timberwork, roof types, wooden doors and the shape of the footage are all exquisite, and I can imagine the Samurai warriors and the Emperor strutting down the street, looking forward to a rest in one of the many Inns. The local elders of the village were responsible for making the village locals provide horses, food and labour to assist the passing officials, tax collectors, and the Emperor as they travelled along the Nakasendo trail.

Our Inn accommodates four lodgers, but we are the only lodgers tonight. The Inn has two stories and the steepest stairs I have ever used. In my estimation, they rose 2 meters over a 2-meter distance making the steps rise at 45 degrees. The coffee made it manageable.

We settled in by partly unpacking and me getting all the electronic devices, cables and chargers connected to ensure they were charged for the next day. Dinner is served, so Lee and I are ushered into a dining room on the ground floor and green tea is served by the Innkeeper. Then follows the most amazing array of food dishes, all exquisitely presented. Vegetables I have never seen are diced, pickled, or sliced and arranged, each in separate dishes, which are beautifully positioned in relation to each other on a tray. Sometimes a tray is used to present the collection of foods, and other times, the dishes are presented separately. There is a predominance of fish among the foods presented, and I wonder whether that is due to the price of beef and other meats. It takes about an hour and a half to eat through all the courses. Lee and I are full. Just as well, the dessert is a small bowl of what I presume is yoghurt with a tasty sultana (at least that is what it tastes like).

We use the translation device to have a short conversation about the Innkeeper’s family as we notice pictures of them on a shelf located just below the ceiling.

Lee and I are exhausted, so after such a lovely meal, we are off to make up the supplied futon bedding. This is the first time we will have slept in a futon, and once made up, I question whether it will be too hard to sleep in. Don’t you worry about that, Lee says, and she was right. Our lack of sleep the previous night and our exertions of the day ensure our sleep is solid and too short, as breakfast is at 7:30 am.
Oh, there was a need during the night to use the toilet, and in my sleepy state, my introduction to the toilet at the Inn was a surprise. I somehow remembered where the toilet was located as I shuffled to the door in minimal light which was entering the hallway from the street lighting. I opened the toilet door, the toilet seat sprung open to reveal the toilet bowl and lights under the seat came on and then closed. I was startled, to say the least, and I staved off thoughts of the shark in the movie Jaws. I recover my composure, and tentatively sat down. At least there was a consolation, the seat was prewarmed. Oh, the delights of a Japanese toilet experience.