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.