中山道完全ガイド：馬籠から妻籠へ🏞️名古屋発日帰り旅行

中山道完全ガイド：馬籠から妻籠へ🏞️名古屋発日帰り旅行

Today we’re doing the Nakasendo trail. It’s a route between Tokyo and Kyoto
that people use in the olden days. Now it’s just for hiking. It goes through the countryside
and picturesque old post towns, which are gorgeous. We’re doing the most popular section
between Magome and Tsumago, which is 8km
long and takes about three hours. We just took the train from Nagoya. We’re doing the trail
as a day trip from Nagoya. We took the Shinano limited express train. It took about 50 minutes on the train
from Nagoya to Naktsugawa And now we’re going to take a bus
over to Magome. It’s bus stop number 3 at the bus
stops behind me. Within the most popular section
of the trail from Magome to Tsumago,
which is the part that most people do. And that is do-able as a day trip. The complete trail is an old road
that goes between Kyoto and Tokyo, so it takes several days
to do the whole thing. This trip was covered by my regional rail
pass: the Alpine Takayama Matsumoto Area Pass, which is ¥24,000
for five days and includes Takayama and the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route,
which are both coming up in my videos. Thank you to Japan Railways, JR Central,
for providing our rail passes. This pass is only available
from mid-April to mid-November, when the alpine route’s open. If you have any questions,
just ask in the comments. We just arrived at Nakatsugawa Station for
the Nakasendo Trail and there’s a stamp. Old stone and an old building. Just spotted another stamp
at Nakatsugawa Station. It looks like some sort of stamp
rally. Kit. Looks like a Gudetama face, doesn’t it? As you can see, it’s a rainy day today,
but we didn’t have any choice about which day we do this on, and so we’re
going to make the best of it anyway. It’s already here. Here’s a bus to make a way. It’s about once an hour. At the moment, it’s quarter past the hour. But check the timetable
in case that changes. you even further into the countryside,
going uphill. I love the views from the bus
of small villages and rice fields. Can’t get enough of those rice fields. We just got off the bus at Magome
and look at this view of the rice fields. I love seeing them on the way
when they’re all filled up with water. The bus take about 25 minutes
from the Nakatsugawa station, and Magome is the last stop. There were several other people coming to do the Nakasendo Trail,
so it was really obvious where to get off. It costs ¥800 each and it’s cash only. When you get on the bus, you pick up
one of the little paper tickets, and there’s a screen at the front
that tells you how much the price is. It goes up the further you go. And then you pay the driver at the end. There are bathrooms right here by the bus
station. Straight away when you arrive. Here’s a sign to make your Magome-juku
post town lower entrance. That way. Here at the Tourist Information Centre, it says they’ve got luggage storage
and transportation. We’ve taken over the luggage storage
at the Magome Tourist Information Center. and they’ve got a sake vending machine. That’s the way to get the hike off
to a good start! oh, there’s some stamps on the table
here at the tourist center. It’s two different ones. Magome-juku Base. Base camp. similar Are there different ones? Let’s collect them all. There’s a nice bonsai here
at the tourist center. Luggage storage is ¥500 per item. And they open at 9 till 4:30. We come see why this thing was pumping out
water. I’m guessing this sign explains it. Hydroelectric. So is creating power. Oh, wow. The sign says
even this small power system reduces CO2 emissions equivalent to 160 square meter forest. It’s really good they can generate their
own electricity in this remote location. We’re starting off uphill into Magome. First, we’re going to get some lunch here
before we start towards Tsumago. Magome-juku is really pretty. Magome & Tsumago are both really
small villages in the countryside. Every building is traditional
Japanese style. It’s like going back in time! So really nice views. Every direction you look. And it’s nice
hearing the sound of rushing water from these streams
going down to the waterweel. although the path itself is a bit
like a waterfall today!! The benefit of a rainy day was
it was so quiet on the trail. If you’ve been at a different time of year
or during nicer weather, tell me what it was like in the comments. There are quite a few cafes
along here and places to get snacks, and there are some guesthouses too
if you want to stay overnight. Here’s one: Yanagi Guesthouse. Kakigori… manju… We’ve just popped into this restaurant
for lunch. It’s called Mikazukian. On Google Maps it says Zuki with a Z. But in the window
it’s got a picture of a moon because Tsuki with a
t s means moon in Japanese. There’s alsl sorts of hot and cold soba
noodles. I’m going to have this one cold soba
with seven kinds of vegetable tempura. You’ve also got curry soba. Wagyu soba with wagyu beef. When we came in
we got a cup of cold barley tea. There’s all these Japanese
whiskeys on the bar. Look how fancy this one is. It’s
got an embroidered label. There’s also fresh umeshu (plum
wine) and craft beer on tap. Phil’s has got the duck soba. It comes with cold soba noodles
and hot broth with duck to dip it in. They gave us some yuzu
kosho,w hich is spicy citrus cpaste. Here’s my vegetable tempura
Looks like an interesting one. There’s pumpkin, some beans, aubergine. And here’s my soba noodles. On the table there’s some salt. Looks like shichimi (spicy). Vegetarians, I messed up ordering. I meant to get the cold version
of this dish without the broth,
which contains fish stock. It would have been rude
to make a fuss about it, especially as they just cooked
it fresh right in front of me. Anyway, I’m not usually that into soba,
but these were the best quality soba noodles
I’ve had, with such a good texture. They just brought over the soba
yu for Phil, which is the water the soba was cooked in. It’s supposed to be really healthy. When you’re done eating,
you put your leftover broth together with the soba
yu and drink it to finish off your meal. This pumpkin tempura is massive. This is really crisp and crunchy Right now it’s the very start of June
on a Tuesday afternoon. I did expect it to be way
busier than this, and I’m sure it is
when it’s nicer weather. It’s not particularly a quiet time of year
to come to Japan, but in high tourist season or the holidays in Japan,
I’m sure there’d be loads of people here. So that’s one benefit of a rainy day,
where we get the place almost to ourselves. Also, I don’t know if these little rivers
are always raging this much. Obviously.,
they always power the waterwheel, but on a rainy day
they must be a bit more full than usual. It’s really nice here
in the sound of the water. The last couple of days
we’ve been in Tokyo, and staying in Shinjuku, and
this really does feel like the opposite. It’s so nice to come out somewhere
a lot quieter, more relaxed, hear the water,
see all the nature around you. It’s a
small town, basically just this street, but there are lots of restaurants, cafes
and souvenir shops. We were fascinated by the waterways. Phil just made a good point. This waterwheel is being powered by this. How is the water getting up there? Is it the force of the water
running down from there? I think it must have it’s own pipe
from up there. Look at these bamboo channels. So the water comes along the bamboo,
it can go in here and they can open up this slot
to fill the pond behind. Or they can have it going down here towards the waterwheel. I don’t know if this is the old tourist
information center. It said at that building at the start
that they’d moved the luggage service. But this is also a tourist
information center. So they’ve got hiking sticks
and there’s bathrooms in there too. It’s 270m more of Magome-juku
to go, and it’s 380m that way. So it’s quite a small town. 380m…. in an hour…! We have had lunch though! Progress is not good so far. Oh, these are cute little birds. I wonder what they are. There’s a mini waterwheel
and a big fish in there. This is a guest house. That would be
a really lovely place to stay. And then you get to be here in the evening
after everyone has gone home. It looks so misty in the hills down there. After coming to Japan in February
and March the last couple of times, it’s really nice to come at a time of year
when there’s greenery and flowers. It looks really lush. I think for a lot of people,
this is like a dream of historic Japan with all these old buildings,
and it’s just so picturesque. everywhere you look. You can spend ages
taking photos around here. There’s some fishes in the pond
and they let the gutters just drain out into the pond. I wonder what this log’s here for?! It’s for opening a bottle of ramune! I didn’t know if there be any
vending machines here because there aren’t any convenience stores
or anything like that, but there are some. And there’s a notice about the swallows
that are building nests around here. They’re really cute. What a nice garden. So picturesque. Here we go. Heading out of Magome
onto the trail towards to Tsumago. I heard this is the better way round to do it, because you’ve got
steep uphill to start with. And then after that, it’s shallow downhill
for the rest of the way. The path’s got a little more cobbled now. It was quite smooth before. Oh good, there’s a signpost. 7.6km to go. It does make it look all mysterious. There’s some steps here. It’s not a very accessible route. It is all paved. So it’s not like hiking through
actual nature, but it is a bit uneven. There’s a massive puddle coming up. Luckily, I’ve got waterproof
shoes, but Phil hasn’t. Not sure how we’re going to navigate this one…! Good luck Phil! Go on tip toes. One. Two. Three. Oh, no. Oh, no. We’re coming towards some bamboo, and there’s a sign
that there might be wild bears. I just remembered they exist. Let’s hope we don’t see any. We really are in the forest now. With these cobblestones, you can’t make
particularly quick progress. They’re not the quickest thing to walk on. I knew there could be bears. I didn’t think they’d
particularly be a problem because this is the most popular
part of the trail, so I figured they’d be a lot of other people around
to scare them away. But it’s pretty quiet here today. We do generally walk quite quickly,
but we’re making quite slow progress because of the cobblestones and also those
really uneven steps, because it’s wet. It’s not really slippery,
but I keep thinking, what if it is going to be slippery
and I slip down? I’m always a bit of a baby
with steps and slopes, especially when it seems like
it might be slippery. So we’re going to try and make
a bit of progress now it’s flatter. There have been a good amount of signposts along the way,
and it tells you how far you’ve got to go. So far there hasn’t been any danger
of getting lost. There’s a bear bell to scare bears away. Go a-way!. Go away! Bears Don’t come too close.! Ooh! It’s quite hard
figuring out how to navigate some of these big puddles. A little waterwheel along the way. Must be a nice rest stop. We are getting a bit hot
from all that climbing the stairs. Another bear bell. You may go through to Tsumago Juku. I have no responsibility
for yourdisappoint. Have a nice day. Enjoy Nakasendo. You may come inside. But only sophisticated person. And there’s free hiking poles. That’s nice of them. We’re going to carry on to Tsumago because
we’re making quite slow progress so far. That bit was quite steep. We’re so unfit! Let’s hope it levels off soon. It seems like some people live along here. They look like people’s houses,
with the cars in the drives. Look,
we’re just entering Nagano prefecture. We’ve gone out of Gifu, into Nagano. There’s a free tea room. I could smell the smoke
coming out of there. On the blackboard it says all
the countries that people have come from. There’s bathrooms across the road
here, too. We’ve done three kilometers
and we got 4.7km to go. This way. The path’s less paved through these forest
sections. I keep looking into the forest
and thinking I’ve seen a shadow. Is it a bear? But we haven’t seen any so far,
thank goodness. The water’s really rushing here. It’s a nice stream. We have seen other people on the trail. But most of the time
we’ve been walking along just by ourselves,
which isn’t great for the bears…! I think it is busier
when the weather’s nicer. I heard from other people
that they were walking along with other people
the whole way on this popular section, and you’d need to do another section
of the next and to have the place to yourselves. Oh there’s another bear bell here! You’re going to have to do that Phil. Some more bathrooms along the route. This bridge looks brand new. Can you see the waterfall across there? We were walking on by the road
for a little bit, and now we’ve come up this slope. The word Juku in the place names
means post town. So it was the same thing in Shinjuku. Shin means new. So that was new post town and Harajuku. Look at all the rushing water!
I love this. I can’t help thinking we’re ringing these
bells to tell the bears it’s dinner time. It’s so misty up there. Isn’t it mysterious? little waterfall. We’re quite high up now. If you want to., you can do a detour to
the Odakimedaki waterfalls down that way. Here’s
a map of the trails around the waterfall. It is a bit scary there
so many bear bells in this section. Look how tall this bamboo is! Massive! We’re coming up to a few houses. This isn’t Tsumago yet. It’s just some little houses
dotted along the route. Can you imagine living here? Kind of in the middle of nowhere. It must be so strange
in such a historic traditional house. We’ve got 2.7km to go. So we’ve done about two thirds so far. That’s where the path goes. Down there, through the woods. There’s a little drinking
fountain of drinkable water here. That’s good. Stay hydrated. Today it’s only about 17 degrees C, and
we’re actually really hot walking along. So I could imagine doing this
walk in the summer. You’d be really hot. So bring plenty of water with you. This does remind me a bit of Mount Takao
because you’re walking through the woodlands with the stream
running beside you. That’s a really good day out from Tokyo. There’s a video about it on my channel. Looks lke
someone’s got ducks in their garden. I would love it
if a duck came and lived in my pond. There’s just a few houses
here. We’re not at Tsumago yet. What a nice place to live by the river. The river is really wide. Now look at those huge boulders. Still so misty in the distance. You can probably see
further on a clear day. Lots more boulders down there. An abandoned van, by the look of it. Oh, wow. That’s a massive one. We were just saying we wish there were
more rice fields along the route. There were some stunning rice fields
and landscapes that we saw from the bus on the way up to Magome, but
we hadn’t really seen any along the trail. Can you hear the river
still rushing down there? But here’s some place and rice
fields coming up. It’s preally pretty, actually,
with the ripples from the rain. Looks like we’ve made it. We’re coming up
to the entrance of Tsumago! That’s a nice view over here to. This is definitely a good place to come
if you want to see more of rural Japan. How different is this from Shibuya? The tanuki welcomes us Tsumago! These wooden houses look so dark. Here’s a map of Tsumago. We’re up there by the bridge
with the red sign. Wow, that water is really raging. Woah, that’s so loud! The power of the water. It’s a water power plant up there. So, that’s what that must be. Looks like we’re the only ones here. Oh, there’s a little shrine up there. It’s like a ghost town at the moment. I’m sure it’s filled up with people
at other times when it’s nice weather. It says the right angled street was built
to slow down the invasion of enemies as much as possible. Could this be the stone from the stamp
I got in Nakatsugawa…? So you can either get a bus to Nakatsugawa
or you can carry on walking. It’s 3.8km this way. There are taxi ranks as well,
if you’re done walking. The busses aren’t that frequent. The hydrangeas are out. A symbol of rainy season in Japan. We’re at the tourist information
office in Tsumago and there’s a stamp to prove
that we made it along the Nakasendo trail. Okay. I don’t think it’s one of those layered wonders. Oh, that did not come out well. Oh. If I try again…? That will be a complete mess. Probably. This is not going to go well. Oh no! Oh, no. It’s even worse! There we are, that’s looks nice. A nice cat in red. Let’s cover up that one. Right now it’s 10 to 5
and a lot of things are closed in Tsumago. We were hoping to go to a cafe
or try some of the local snacks here, but all the cafes
and restaurants are shut. We were planning to walk the extra two miles to Nagiso Station
to get the train back to Nagoya. There is also a bus. The timing hasn’t worked out
that great with the bus. The next one’s at 5:40. And as nothing’s open here, we thought
we’ll get a taxi to the station. And maybe there’s a cafe or something open
in Nagiso. We just popped into the tourist
information office. They checked the bus times and gave us information about taxis,
and they were really helpful. He spoke English in there as well. This looks like it’d be wisteria. That comes out a bit earlier in the year. It’s all lilac. The taxi was ¥7,000 for the six minute
drive to the station. I don’t usually take taxis in Japan,
but the driver was really friendly
and enjoyed practicing his English. Look, there’s a station
cat here at Nagiso Station! Two tickets, please. Meow! Looks like they’ve been having some milk. We’re at Nagiso Station,
and there’s a stamp. It’s another one in the stamp rally
I found earlier at Nakatsugawa Station. This time it’s a different lady. I’ll put it on the same page.
There we are! Where all the restaurants are. You can eat delicious eel. So that was the Nakasendo Trail. Not the whole thing,
just the Magome to Tsumago section. It would definitely be more enjoyable
on a nice day, but the benefit of the rainy day today is
there were hardly any other people there. I think along the trail
we saw a maximum of ten people probably, and there were so many sections
where we were walking and there was no one else in sight at all,
which was really nice. Tell me in the comments
if you’ve been when the weather’s nicer or a different time of year,
what it was like. I really enjoyed looking around
Magome at the start. It’s such a pretty, picturesque town. There’s lots of places to eat there, lots of little shops,
and we both really loved seeing how, the water was running in channels
around the town, and all the water wheels, and how people had used it for their ponds
and everything. That was really lovely. And if you like taking photos,
you could spend a long time there. Everywhere
you looked, it’s just beautiful. I think it is like a dream of historic
Japan. It took us about 3 hours
in total of walking to do the trial, and then we spent a bit of time
in the restaurant as well, which is what they say
it’s supposed to take. It’s not a difficult walk. If you start at home, there is some uphill to start with,
and it feels a little bit strenuous. We were a little bit worn out, but then you can recover really quickly
and there are lots of downhill bits too. Some of it’s paved. There are steps. Some of it is a little bit muddy trails,
but it’s not a full on country hike or anything like that. It is quite easy overall. Not super, super easy,
but it’s not difficult. If it’s raining,
definitely be prepared for the weather. You need waterproof shoes and either
an umbrella or a raincoat or a waterproof jacket would probably be better
because the rain comes from all angles. It was a bit windy. We had a bit of trouble
with the umbrellas at one point. It would be better
if you started earlier in the day as well. We came from Tokyo this morning. We took the shinkansen from Tokyo
at about 9 a.m., and then we got every train as quickly
as we could to get here. By the time we got to Tsumago,
most things were closed. I had been planning to have more of a look around Tsumago,
and try some of the local snacks. There’s the local gohei mochi. But everything was just closed by the time we got there, so it would be
better to start off earlier in the day. But it is definitely do-able
as a day trip from Nagoya. It was really pretty around Magome. The walk
kind of reminded me of Mount Takao because it was through the forest and
I really enjoyed the trip up on the bus. As we came out of
the city at Nakatsugawa, and started going uphill through the countryside
and we saw lots of terraced rice fields. That was really good too. I think probably a lot of people
who want to see traditional Japan would go to Kyoto,
where it’s really crowded. But here you can see the real thing,
not the Kyoto isn’t real, but it is like everything you want from historic,
traditional Japan is here, I reckon. So this would be a really good option. So now from Nagiso Station,
we’re going to take the JR Shinano train,
which goes directly back to Nagoya. Not all the trains are direct. Sometimes you have to take a train back
to Nakatatsugawa Station, which is the station we got to earlier,
and then a train from there back to Nagoya. But we’re lucky with the train times. We can take the express train
directly back to Nagoya. Outside Tokyo, I’d recommend using the Japan travel
by now every time up for train times. It gives better results than Google. The direct train takes one hour
15 minutes back to Nagoya. You can also do this as a day trip
from Matsumoto. If you take the Shinano train,
it takes about an hour 20 minutes to get to Nakatsugawa station
where we take the bus to Magome. Other trains do take a lot longer,
so look up the times for that Shinano express train. If you want to see my hotel in Nagoya,
that’s in my previous video, the JR Gate Tower Hotel,
which is right at the station. And they’ll be more coming up from central
Japan as we! move on to Takayama. There’s new videos on my channel
every Thursday. I’ll see you then.

Hiking the popular section of the Nakasendo Way, from Magome to Tsumago, as a day trip from Nagoya (1 hour on the train).

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The Nakasendo Trail is an old route between Tokyo and Kyoto. It goes through the Japanese countryside, with picturesque old post towns along the way. Hiking the whole trail takes several days, so we just did the most popular section between Magome and Tsumago, as a day trip from Nagoya (also do-able from Matsumoto). It’s a fairly easy hike, through beautiful scenery, and feels like an adventure. It’s about 8km long and took us 3 hours. You start and finish at gorgeous historic villages, where there are restaurants and cafes. We had soba noodles at Mikazukian in Magome-juku. It’s so picturesque, and a great alternative to Kyoto if you want to see traditional Japan, and go somewhere a little off the beaten track. Unfortunately when I was there it rained all day, but it was still do-able even on a rainy day – just wear waterproof shoes! There are lots more tips in the video, including how to get there on the train from Nagoya Station to Nakatsugawa, and how to get back from Nagiso Station.

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00:00 How to get there
01:49 Bus to Magome
02:38 Arriving in Magome
04:37 Soba noodles lunch
06:08 Magome juku
08:59 Nakasendo Trail
15:35 Tsumago
18:35 Review
21:23 How to get back to Nagoya

#japan #japantravel #nakasendo