Day Nine: Nakasendo Way Day Three (The Rain)

 “What is a blog? A blog is like this bowl of muesli: all mixed up with nuts...”

• Adam Feldmeth 2024

Hello! This is Zara and August! We started the third day of our Walk-Japan adventure waking up at different times. While most of the girls—who were all rooming together—woke up at around 6:15, most of the guys were awake by 7:00. By 7:20, everyone was sitting in the dining room, enjoying a traditional Japanese meal that consisted of yogurt, a banana, an egg, a piece of cooked salmon, a small side-salad, and self-served rice. While we ate, our tour guide Yo briefed us on the plan for our day, and, afterwards, we returned to our rooms to finish up any packing that we had left to do. At 8:15 we reunited in the lobby, dropped off our luggage, and set out for the day. 💪

Light rain that had set in through the previous night continued into the morning, so, by the time we ventured out, our umbrellas were opened and already in use ☔️. We walked along a damp paved road that eventually turned into un-paved trail until we reached a train station in a nearby post town. We waited inside the station for about 20 minutes, hiding from the now heavy rain, until around 9:30 when we boarded the Shinkansen (bullet train).

After around 25 minutes, we arrived at Kiso and started walking to a nearby bus stop, which was about two-and-a-half miles away. Given we had undertaken a long and treacherous 8-mile long hike the day before, I could sense the mutual relief we were all feeling given today’s lighter agenda 😎. The bus was scheduled to arrive at 11:50, so we had some free time (about 20 mins) in Kiso, during which we could visit some of the local shops; most of us grabbed snacks from a small grocery store 🍿. At 11:50, we boarded the local bus and, after a short ride, we headed to a soba-making factory in a children’s toy museum.

Arriving after a short 20 minute ride, we scurried through the rain and into the museum. All of us shook off our umbrellas, took off our shoes, and slipped into our uwabakis before entering the building, where three women—the owners—gave us a warm welcome. We entered the dining room and arranged ourselves in groups of four before moving to our corresponding workstations in the kitchen. All four of the girls worked in one group, four of the guys in another group, and two more guys in the last group. Each group had one instructor, who guided it through the process of soba making.

We started off by mixing—not kneading—buckwheat flour in a large bowl with water, which the instructor gradually added as we worked. Next, we kneaded the dough into a large ball which we subsequently rolled in into a flat square using a large rolling pin. Finally, we folded the large, buckwheat square as if it were a large piece of fragile origami paper and chopped it into noodles using an axe-like knife. Our instructors guided us to pots of boiling water, into which we carefully placed our noodles. After only around a minute, our noodles were ready to eat, and we removed them from the pots. Our instructors gave us large wooden trays, onto which we laid our soba, spinning our noodles as we lowered them. 🍜

While we were in the kitchen, our instructors had placed a small a bowl of sauce and a tray with green onion and wasabi onto each group’s table, so, when we returned with our noodles in hand, we could immediately begin eating our well-deserved meal. We were done eating by 1:20, and we boarded another bus that was set for our ryokan at around 1:35.

After just about 15 minutes, we reached our stop and started walking towards our inn. When we arrived, Yo told us that this inn was more modern than the one we had stayed in the previous night, and, thus, it had a far bigger onsen, which we were all delighted to hear 🎊. In the lobby, we got our rooming assignments: the boys were split into two groups of three while the girls were all together in one room. Because there were other guests at this hotel, we acquired a time slot from 2:30-3:30, during which we would have the onsen to ourselves 🚿. From the time we arrived at the hotel until 6:00 (when dinner was served), we were given free time.

At 6:00 we all arrived downstairs for dinner. We received a multiple-course meal consisting of salmon sashimi, chicken, salad, mountain vegetables, soba, miso soup, and rice. Dessert was a kinako daifuku with matcha jelly. After we finished our dinner, we all went upstairs to get some much needed rest, preparing for the much longer hike ahead of us. Goodnight and arigato! 👋