Visiting Japan: the Nakasendo Trail and Takayama
It has been nearly a year since E. and I were flying over to Japan for our honeymoon. It was October and the perfect timing to see the trees becoming yellow, orange and red with Autumn falling upon this beautiful country.
I have already talked about our time in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara a good while back. Now, let me tell you about our little excursions in the amazing Japanese countryside.
We left our Tokyo hotel one early Thursday morning. Before leaving, we had made sure to drop our luggage to be sent to our Takayama stop the next day (via a very clever system called takkyubin). We were about to tackle a little hike in the Kiso Valley and needed things for one night only.
We then made our way to Shinjuku station, the busiest in the world and guess what... it was rush hour! If you want to see people really close up, that would be the perfect time. If you suffer with claustrophobia, just don't. We eventually made it to a major train station so we could catch the shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya. Trains are a wonderful way to travel and you get to see a lot of landscape. The shinkansen was really fast but we managed to see Mount Fuji for a few short minutes (it was covered in fog on our way back).
In Nagoya, we caught a smaller train headed to Nakatsugawa. There, we had to wait for a little bus to take us to Magome where we would start our 8kms hike to Tsumago (this is a small part of the Nakasendo Trail located in the Kiso Valley). While we were waiting, I spotted a shop filled with local food specialties. One of them was the really delicious seasonal kuri kinton, a sweet chestnut dumpling. If you are visiting this area at the moment, it is probably back in season, give it a try!
Our little bus arrived and took us to Magome. There we started our hike on the sunny side of the valley. It got really hot (yes, even in October!) but luckily we had brought plenty of water with us. The landscape was just spectacular with huge trees and bamboo forests. We also spotted a whole lot of persimmon trees. Along the hike, we passed beautiful clear rivers and a few tiny and quiet villages. Here and there, people were growing rice, fruit and vegetable, drying azuki (red beans) and waving as we walked past.
At one stage, I thought I spotted a hummingbird and took a few photos but it turned out to be some particular type of moth: hummingbird hawk-moth. Nature was really surprising at every corner of the trail.
We then reached Tsumago after walking down the valley, this time in the refreshing shade!
We walked through Tsumago (what a gorgeous little village!) and waited for a shuttle bus that would take us to our ryokan hotel for the night.
The first thing we did once there was checking out the onsen and take a hot bath. An onsen is a hot spring and really a wonderful relaxing experience. But be prepared to have to remove ALL of what you are wearing and wash yourself in front of others before going in the water! Public baths don't mix women and men so at least, that's that! I actually had the whole women onsen for myself. After a day walking in the heat up and down a valley, it was divine!
Afterwards, we went for dinner and had our first kaiseki experience. Kaiseki is a traditional seasonal Japanese dinner consisting of many courses. I counted 9 courses that night! A lovely lady pointed at the menu so we could know what we were eating. It was all in Japanese so to this day, I still am not sure about some of the things we ate. Each plate was presented beautifully with very intricate details. We had some gorgeous sashimi that definitely won my heart. The raw octopus tough pieces though... not so much!
Let's say that after the hike, the hot bath and a lot of food, I fell asleep really fast.
The next day, we headed to Matsumoto via two trains so we could visit its famous castle. The view was really beautiful as the city is located in the Nagano prefecture and surrounded by mountains. In order to visit the castle, you have to remove your shoes so I would suggest you either wear socks or bring a pair with you if you plan to go there. We went all the way to the top while being ever so careful not to fall on the slippery wood floors (and sometimes very steep staircases - and imagine that samurais had to walk up and down those stairs really fast in their full gear!).
We had a bit of time before catching the bus for our next stop so we had a little wander around the castle to admire the red and white koi (carps) in the big pond. We also fit in a lunch of delicious gyoza (Japanese pan-fried dumplings) and I had room to grab a cute taiyaki, a waffle shaped like a fish (filled with thick custard for mine and they also had options of sweet azuki bean paste or chocolate).
We then jumped on the coach that would drive us through the Japanese Alps towards Takayama. The drive took two and half hours but the mountainous landscape was so spectacular that I could have spent any amount of time on that bus with my face glued to the window. Imagine all the red and yellow trees dispersed through the mountains among rocks and dense forests and all the beautiful clear rivers we crossed. If I could, I would go back there in a heartbeat!
Once in Takayama, we found our ryokan hotel where we were staying for two nights. Our luggage had arrived from Tokyo and was already in our room. We were able to book a little private onsen that smelled of pine trees and had view on the mountains getting dark in the evening. Relaxed and refreshed, we settled in our bedroom where the furniture had been pushed as dinner was served on a low table on the tatami floor. It was another kaiseki experience but this time we had 16 courses! The dishes kept arriving, I thought it would never end. Some of it was really strange but I did taste a bit of everything. There was a grilled fish that I decided to call 'the angry fish with a crazy look in his eyes'. It was filled (filled!) with thick yellow fish eggs and the fish itself looked pretty scary with insanely sharp pointed teeth. It wasn't exactly my favourite dish so I filled up on sashimi and miso soup.
The next day, we woke up early to go and visit the town. First, we went to the dining room and had the weirdest breakfast ever: raw octopus slices, rice and sweet vegetable, pickled mountain vegetables, miso soup and some type of fermented something (yep, not soy beans... something!). I could really not have that everyday and was reassured when our Kyoto guide Keiko told us she only has cereal and milk for breakfast.
The morning was really freezing in the mountains but it quickly warmed up. We went straight to the Miyagawa morning food market to have a look at the local produce. We saw some rather enormous apples and strange looking mountain vegetables. We were still a bit hungry after our weird Japanese breakfast and luckily the market had some amazing stalls with cooked food. My favourite was the hida-gyu-man, a steamed rice bun filled with some type of wonderful Hida beef stew. I could have eaten a lot of those, they were so comforting and flavoursome. Hida gyu (Hida beef) has a really good reputation and I can confirm it was really delicious (we tried it in other meals afterwards). We also grabbed a couple of skewers of rice balls cooked with sticky soy sauce before a little trip to Hida no Sato (Hida folk village) to visit the open air museum of traditional houses.
Takayama is a very pretty town, I would love to visit it in Winter when it is covered in snow. We also found the strangest little shops and museums while wandering in the back streets (see that photo with the many little decorative birds below? It was a shop selling mostly those and there were hundreds and hundreds on the walls). It is worth being curious and exploring to make the most of it.
That second day in Takayama, we were served once again a kaiseki dinner in our room. This time, we had wonderful dishes with hida beef, including a thick steak to cook by ourselves on a mini table grill. It barely needed any seasoning at all, it was incredible by itself.
The next day, we skipped breakfast ( and were not too sad about it) and went to the station so a train could take us to our next adventures in Kyoto and Nara.
