Day Eight: Nakasendo Way Day Two

 Hello everyone, this is Isabel and Mira (officially sophomores now 😉). We are so excited to tell you about our second day of Walk Japan!

Today we started our morning earlier than usual in preparation for a very busy day. We woke up at around 6:30 am, packed up all of our things and quickly headed to enjoy a traditional Japanese breakfast at our ryokan. The breakfast started at 7:15 am consisted of miso soup, cooked egg, a small side salad, salmon, and of course, a side of tea. After our satisfying meal, we dropped off our luggage in the lobby by 8 am and got ready to head out for a long day of walking. 

Everyone made sure to fill their water bottles. Once that was done we headed to the train station to catch a quick ride from Ena to Nakatsugawa city. We briefly walked through the city onto a more secluded path up a hill to the Nakasendo Way, which is paved with white and yellow pebbles to mark the historic route. Our tour guide, Yo, warned us about the 3 uphills. He considered the first one elementary level, the second middle level, and finally the third one as the hardest boss of the day😰. At the foot of the first hill, Yo stopped us at a giant signboard. He explained it to be the rules of the Edo period. The rules he mentioned consisted of things like, not burning down houses, stealing, killing people, and also banned Christianity. He told us that the Shogun at the time banned Christianity and anyone who practiced the religion was beheaded along with their families. A way the shogun would test their faith was to put a cross on the floor and have the participant step on it. If they did, they were safe, if not, he knew they were Christian. 

 

After successfully completing the first hill with no break of sweat, we started up the second which proved to be way more challenging than the first. The hill was very steep and the sun was beaming down on us. By the end, everyone was begging Megan for her hand-held electric fan. After a short break, we all mentally prepared for the final and most difficult hill. The walk over was long and in a rural village. It was pretty empty for the most part, but proved to be a very scenic route with lots of greenery and different types of flowers we had never seen before. Yo pointed out to us that the hill we would be climbing over, which in our humble opinion, looked more like a mountain. At this point, everyone was feeling kind of intimidated but also pumped for the journey ahead. The trees surrounding the pathway proved to be useful in giving us refuge from the sun. The third hill was really long but not as steep as the second, regardless everyone was out of breath when we reached the top, (especially the boys who decided to run the whole way up). Then we took a brief hike, that thankfully did not have as much incline, (😮‍💨) to a small town called Magome where we had some free time to check out the small shops. 

We bought a couple of souvenirs for our family (stay tuned to find out 😉), and even saw a little adoptable kitten- it was so cute😻! Then we met up at the top of the street to gather and head to lunch. After a quick 15 minute walk, we arrived at a small restaurant that specialized in traditional chestnut rice. The meal set (which was vegan) consisted of, of course, chestnut rice, delicious, miso soup, cold soba noodles, a mochi dessert, and a vegetable platter. After lunch, we all had a oishi sweet treat of ice cream. We both got a matcha flavored soft serve that was so delicious🍦. Then we headed out 2.5 miles to the next ryokan we were staying at. On the way, we stopped at two water falls. The story of the waterfalls goes as follows; in the past, the best solo samurai was tasked by a lord to transport his precious only daughter to Edo (present day Tokyo). On a warm, humid day their yukatas got soaked with sweat and they decided to bathe in the waterfalls. The wider waterfall is considered the boy’s waterfall and the longer one is considered the girls waterfall. Then we trekked to our ryokan called Maruya. Inside the ryokan everyone was relived to get cleaned up and ready for dinner after an 8 mile hike. 

For dinner we had fried fish, salad, miso soup with shiitake mushrooms, tofu with sesame sauce, Soba noodles, savory pudding, and for dessert a small serving of milk jello and strawberries. After we finished, at around 7pm we gathered around the kagi/the lobby of the hotel to listen to the many stories and songs from a traditional folk singer. We clapped along, and even sang a chorus for one of them. It was really fun getting to know more about traditional Japanese culture and the stories behind the songs. Now it is time for us to get ready for bed and rest up for tomorrow’s journey. Goodbye! 👋