Kiso-ji detour (or a watched typhoon never lands)

 30 Aug - 4 Sept

 Shiojiri, Niekawa, Kiso-Hirasawa, Narai, Yabuhara, Kiso-fukushima, Nojiri, Nagiso, Tsumago, Magome

 30 Aug

 Warm, still no sign of the typhoon

 I walked between Niekawa, Kiso-Hirasawa, Narai, Yabuhara (~17 km) today. I have walked some of the more natural bits of the Kiso Road before and knew that it wasn't all like that, but I really wasn't prepared for how much walking along national route 19 without a footpath and with blind corners I would be doing today. The km on km of walking on busy and often unsafe roads is one of the reason I chose the Tokai natural trail over the Nakasendo and Tokaido trails.

 Logged my first geocache find of the trip in Niekawa ... And logged my first didn't find of the trip in Narai...

 I caught the first train out of Shiojiri to Niekawa at 8:17. there must be a highschool or college in Niekawa as the train was full of students, revising biology work, who got off with me.

 Niekawa sekisho - location of the Kisoji border checkpoint. Minimal english but the friendly staff will explain via Google translate.

 Road walking to Kiso-hirasawa - fun bit of fearing for me life on route 19, otherwise nothing to write home about.

 Road Station Kiso Narakawa - souvenir shop and small free museum

 Hiasawa Suwa Shrine - small shrine on a hill in town, 3 men were busy doing woodwork at the workshop below.

 Kiso Lacquer ware museum - small museum, with lot of lacquerware on display. Adjacent to a nice park and playground.

 Road walking to Narai - town streets, walked past the Narakawa School, who appear to have pet rabbits if the hutches out the back re anything to go by.

 Kiso-no-ohashi Bridge - nice bridge, park and rest area

 Trail walking to Yabuhara.

 Torii Pass - lovely pass with Toriitoge Ontake Shrine at the top, there is also a forest weather station (enclosed rest hut, toilet and benches) and Maruyama Park (gazebo and benches). Highest point on the Nakasendo way.

 Met an Englishman named Chase as I walked down Torii Pass (well I heard his anti-bear singing first). He is about halfway through his Nakasendo walk, it was great to chat and get some insite into what he was doing and how he was going so far.

 I arrived at Yabuhara station at 5pm, just 10mins late for a train back to Shiojiri, this meant I had to kill time till the 6:20pm train. I spent my time looking and not finding a geocache so that was an unexciting end to the day.

 31 Aug

 Rain, all day.

 Made the executive decision to hang out in my hotel room for the majority of the day. Not gonna lie, it was pretty amazing.

 1 Sept

 Warm, still no sign of the typhoon

 I had a choice today; either walk some more of route 19 in the Kiso valley or go and see some of the sites Shiojiri had to offer. I chose the later and even did some Nakasendo road walking in shiojiri to get there.

 Hiraide Heritage - outdoor installation of Heian, Kofun and Jomon houses. Archeological surveying have found many remnants of settlement throughout the valley and surrounding hills.

 Shiojiri City Hiraide Museum and Hiraide Pond - artifacts and pottery from the Hiraide heritage site and information about the area and ways of life. There are three burial mounds and more house recreations behind the museum. The pond is a natural spring and a fantastic blue colour 

 2 Sept

 Warm, overcast, late afternoon showers

 I caught the 8:17 train from Shiojiri to Kiso-fukushima.

 Fukushima District Border Checkpoint Museum - small, more museum-y than the Niekawa checkpoint.

 Yamamura Daikan Yashiki Museum - small museum about the Yamamura family who ruled the Kiso Valley and held the position of keeper of the Fukushima checkpoint throughout the Edo period.

 I then caught the 2pm train to Nojiri station and started the 2km walk (which turned into a 5.6 km walk after a wrong turn and a no through road) to my accommodation for the night, Atera-so forest spa. Did some trainspotting, a popular Japanese past time, and some monkey spotting on the way.

 The onsen was probably built in the 70s or 80s and thus is a little tired, but the room was clean and I had the onsen all to myself. Based on the number of set breakfast places I think there were only 5 people saying there that night. The surrounds were beautiful and if I can I will be back to explore the Atera valley.

 3 Sept

Warm but not hot, very humid, very gross

 Had breakfast at my accommodation and then began the, thankfully, only 2km trek back the station for the 9:52 train to Nagiso. 

I had debated whether to walk the 7km to Nagiso but the bore of road walking decided for me.

 福沢桃介記念館 and 山の歴史館 - small museum about the king of electrical power, Momosuke Fukuzawa, who introduced hydroelectricity to Japan and built hydroelectric plants up and down the Kiso valley. No english, but the lady at the front desk is very friendly.

 Trail and town road walking to Magome via Tsumago, ?12km long (~8km between Tsumago and Magome)

 I have done this stretch before but in the other direction, in the snow and without a big pack. It was enjoyable both times, however, the amount of sweat I sweated today was very, very awful and despite drinking what I thought was enough, bathroom breaks were very, very rare. I started walking from the Momosuke museum at 12ish and made it to my accommodation in Magome at 5.

 Tsumago Castle Ruins - great views up and down the valley.

 Odaki & Medaki waterfalls - I didn't walk down to the falls this time but they are very pretty.

 Tateba Tea House (Ichikoku Tochitate Chaya) - tea house offering tea (wow, who'd of thought it) and restrooms, nice place to stop but unfortunately it shuts at 3, which was the time I got there...

 Magome Pass - there is a stone signifying the pass but not much else. There is also a bus stop here with infrequent buses running to Nagiso station, Tsumago and Magome.

 All of the eateries in Magome are shut by 4:30/5 so I stopped at Juri for an early dinner at 3:40. The ladies who run it are delightful and we had a conversation over Google translate, they also gave me some candy for the road.

 Got to my accommodation at 5 and then walked around the town. Most if not all shops and restaurants are shut by this time, even in summer.

 4 Sept

 Left my accommodation at 8:30/9:00am and started the descent into Nakatsugawa. It is around a 8/9km walk, with around 35 geocaches placed along the way - these slowed me down considerably.

 Trail and town road walking to Nakatsugawa station

 Ochiai Sunset Lookout Point - nice rest stop with benches and a view

 Ochiai Cobblestone Path - lovely shaded stretch, tho the cobblestone were a wee bit slippery - nearly landed on my arse 3 or so times.

 善昌寺の門冠の松 - pine in the road and rest area

 I arrived at Nakatsugawa station around 2:15pm. It was here that I had some decisions to make, either go to Tokyo and start the Tokai Nature trail - it will be cooler but the terrain is more mountainy, and gets rural faster; or go to Osaka and start there - it will be hotter but the terrain is less challenging and buses and hotels will be just around the corner. After consulting the maps, weather forecasts, how warm and gross I was feeling on a ~30°c day, and the fact that I can change my mind later if I want to make it a flipflop hike, I decided to head to Tokyo. I opted for the scenic (ie cheaper) trains to get there, so sat on trains for 5 hours and still managed to get 25,000 steps in today. Also got a bonus glimpse of Mt Fuji on the way (let's not mention the quality of the pic).