Kiso Valley

On 26 October 2012, for mid-term break, we went to visit the Kiso Valley bordering Gifu and Nagano prefectures.We decided to do the walk on the old Nakasendo trade road between Magome and Tsumago.

We parked the car at Magome and started exploring the old post town. The road ran through the middle with many old shops and 'minshuku' (inns).

When we got to the top of the old town in Magome we very quickly in the countryside. The trail was clearly marked.

There were little farmlets along the way.

A highlight for the boys was the fact that there were bells every kilometre or so to ring to alert wild bears that walkers were on the trail. It's not as if our family was going to sneak up on a bear anyway ...

GRRRRRR!!!!!

More farmhouses with produce outside. Vegetables and even spices.

We then entered the forest proper. 

The scenery inside the forest was beautiful. It was the start of autumn, so there were many coloured leaves.

After leaving the forest and a walk of about two and a half hours, we reached the historic post town of Tsumago. Tsumago has been preserved to show how it would have looked during the Edo period.

A straw horse

We caught the bus from Tsumago back to Magome to get the car and head back to the Kiso Hotel. At the hotel we had an 'onsen' (hot mineral spring bath) and dressed in 'yukata' for dinner. The boys were an absolute highlight for the Japanese guests at the hotel - 'kawaii!!'

On the drive home to Tokyo the next day we stopped at an historic village that showed huts and structures from the Joumon Period and Kofun Period.

An interesting couple of days in the countryside and managed to soak up a bit of history as well.

Tsukishima

On Spring day (public holiday), we went to Tsukishima for a walk around. Straight out  of the station and a short walk took us to the beautiful Sumiyoshi Shrine.

The shrine had an old store house for the mikoshi (portable shrine)

And a brand new one with two mikoshi inside

We explored the fascinating alleyways and side streets. Tsukishima is an island formed of reclaimed land completed in 1892, using earth from the dredging work performed to create a shipping channel in Tokyo Bay. There are a lot of old houses and shops here.

This shop made and sold eight-sided chopsticks Lady Gaga has visited there. He had photos to prove it ...

Down one alleyway (no wider than a few feet, we found a little shrine. Tsukuda Tendai Jizo. Guardian Deity of Children. The stone carving conveys the image of Budhist Chief priest Suu-toku-in who lived in Ueno from 1715 to 1738.

 We then went for a walk along the waterfront of the Sumida River.

The white Chuo Ohashi Bridge. You can just see Tokyo Sky Tree in the distance

This is an old lighthouse. It has public toilets underneath now

The waterways had fishing boats moored in them

Unfortunately this one had sunk

We found 'Monja' street, which has dozens of restaurants that serve monjayaki.

We chose Tsukushiya for lunch - fortunately they had an English menu

Monjayaki is made from fresh ingredients (in our case, cabbage, tomato, chilli, carrots and noodles are finely chopped and fried on a teppan hotplat in front of us. A batter is then poured in and it finishes cooking. We then ate it directly off the grill using small metal spatulas.

We also had a pork, squid, shrimp and scallop okonomiyaki.

After lunch we continued our stroll dow Monja Street.

This is the oldest Koban (police box) in Tokyo - built in 1920.

All in all, we had a great day exploring this older and interesting part of Tokyo.