Japan 2024 Nakasendo Trail

We left the GS Astuto rider house, well fortified by a fine breakfast. It must have been filling because, we didn't refuel till after 1:30pm.  To start, we zig-zagged a bit to reach Yokokawa and then rode up #18. The ride up was quiet with only a bit of tourist traffic. We encountered a few local riders going up and down the road. We did surprisingly well on the first day with a 800m climb and Sheila had inadvertently ridden part of it with the e-bike engine off.  We were at the high point by noon and worked our way past the base of the Karuizawa ski resort, and by affluent looking homes . We rode through our first post town (Oiwake-juku) but the  udon restaurant, where I had planned lunch, was closed on Tuesdays. We ended up stopping at a 7-Eleven convenience store for lunch, which I considered as a lost opportunity, because eating in restaurants are such fun.  The final 5km  of the ride was urban, but downhill and we reached the snazzy AQA Hotel Premium in good time, before 3:00am and we had to wait a little before we could move in (many Japanese hotels are fastidious about check-in times). 47km with 800m elevation gain 

The AQA has an excellent top floor bath house and we were back in our groove with an afternoon soak. We weren't feeling super adventurous about food and we walked over to Coco's for dinner. Coco's is a family restaurant that serves a mixture of western and Japanese foods. We ordered from a tablet and some of our food was served by a robot. 

Day 2 was meant to be a big climb and descent. I had concerns that it might be too much but we had an easy way out; poor weather. We opted for the train  and put the bikes into rinko bags (bikes on most Japanese trains must be fully covered). From the Sakudaira station, we caught the scenic  8:31am Kuomi line train to Kobuchizawa Station. We didn't see much along the way with low clouds. Our train arrived uncharacteristically late and we had to hustle to catch our connecting Chuo line train to Suwa.  We put the bikes together and rode to the castle. I had scoped out the Maido Ookini Restaurant for lunch. It was cafeteria style buffet and the food was excellent. Later, we rode around the Takashima Castle,reached the Lake Suwa bike path and took refuge from a shower at a covered warm foot bath. We rode up towards the Suwa Taisha Shrine and by the time we got there, rain had kicked in . We took shelter under a tree. We took turns taking a quick look around. Although the shrine is  one of the oldest shrines in Japan, it somehow lost its magic in the rain. 

The rain eased and it was getting on, so we decided to start on the remaining 15 km of riding. It didn't ease for long and we were soon riding in the rain on the unappealing #20 through town, before common sense prevailed and we got onto the back streets. There is a pass between Suwa and our destination of Shiojiri . Rather than cycling on the busy #20, we took the small but very steep roads up the steep 200m climb (partly hike-a-bike). It was quite pretty, but we didn't appreciate it in the rain.  The weather cleared for a little while and we rode into Shiojiri to the Route-Inn, arriving between 4:30 and 5:00pm.  We took our baths and then headed out for dinner. The Marugame Seimen udon restaurant was nearby the hotel and we,  like moths attracted to lights, were attracted to the attractive signage and pennants. We  didn't know there were so many variants of the wheat based udon noodles. Dinner was good and  fun. The rain shortened day had 26km riding with 350m elevation gain. 

The Shiojiri Route-Inn provided an excellent buffet breakfast and we were rolling by a little after 7:30am on our third day.  It was easy riding the back streets and then we followed the Chuo West rail line and entered the narrow Narai River valley. We kept to the small Old Nakasendo Road for the most part. It undulated and it disappeared in places and we were forced to ride the #19 highway. On those sections, we kept to the sidewalk. 25km into the day, we reached Narai, a well-preserved post town, before the main tourist hours. We rode the town up and down a couple of times, before deciding to take the #19 tunnel southwards. It does have an older sidewalk with a railing but the ride was not much fun. We emerged into the Kiso Valley and headed straight to Oginoya restaurant in Yabuhara. It is a soba (buckwheat) noodle restaurant housed in an ancient building. We shared the large common table with a British couple who were section walking the Nakasendo.

During that day, we saw a few touring cyclists, all of whom seem to be riding the #19 rather than the little roads. We carried on the Old Nakasendo with a couple of appearances on the #19.  As we approached our destination for the evening, we detoured to a 7-Eleven to pick up some snacks and drinks. The Kamao Hotel is south of the main road and it took us a little while to find reception as the hotel is part of a larger concrete complex. Reception was friendly, and before we knew it, we had soaks in the basic bath house. We settled down in the traditional style room and we were joined by a few other Japanese visitors for the set dinner in the dining hall. The server was quite helpful. 50km with 525m elevation gain.

We felt that the riding improved on Day 4. It could be that we did much more descending than ascending,  but mostly because the valley widened and the small roads were a distance away from the rumble of highway #19. We opted for the Kamao Hotel breakfast at 7:00am  We followed a series of little roads, then we kept close to the Kiso River. Thereafter, the #508 took us well above the river and lead us to a  couple of tunnels. There was negligible traffic and the longest of the tunnels, at near 2km, was undergoing some minor repairs and therefore subject to alternating traffic.  We waited a short time and then a traffic control person on bicycle escorted us through the tunnel. To give the reader an idea of how quiet the #508 road was, by the time we rode through, there was a single car waiting at the other end.

At Okuwa, our route took us on small roads, south of #19 in very scenic country. This area would be excellent for day rides up and along various small rivers. We had arranged to meet with Tim of GS Astuto at the Okuwa Michi-no-Eki.  We were running a little early and he was running late because of traffic, so we skipped eating at the Michi and carried on to a nearby Italian style restaurant  (Kitchen Kuranbo) for an outstanding, inexpensive lunch.  The meeting and service with Tim took a little while. Tim hooked up Sheila's bike to his laptop to make a few adjustments. It did fix some issues and I was happy to change out the handlebar stem on my bike for a shorter one. We got going again around 3:00pm and dropped back down to the Kiso River. We rode up the beautiful Atera River valley and we manged to reach our accommodation of Atera-So Onsen by 4:00pm. Of course, we had soaks in the baths and that was followed by a nice dinner at the hotel. Interestingly, the foreign guests at the hotel seemed to outnumber the domestic tourists. 50km with 350m elevation gain.

On our fifth day on the Nakasendo, we passed through two well preserved post towns, a small pass, a river of tourists, the last of touring cyclists and we arrived in "the real Japan" (by that I mean few, even domestic, tourists). 

The Atera-so Hotel put on a full Japanese breakfast and we were rolling before 8:00am. Small roads lead us to the west side of the Kiso River and then back over to the east side at Nagiso. A tiny road lead us up to Tsumago, another post town. We poked around the various side streets and then kept to side roads before slipping onto #7 to Magome Pass. There were a few week-end motorbike enthusiasts riding up and down the switchbacks, scraping their knees on the tight corners. Up at the pass, walkers congregated and we free-wheeled down to Magome post town. It may have been the time of day, but Magome was the busiest of post towns that we passed through. The main street , is a steep path that was at the time full of tourists and we walked our bikes through the preserved town. Our little roads continued to descend and we stopped to talk to a couple of Aussies cycling in the opposite direction. They were renting bikes from the same outfit and had started from Nagoya. Further along, we encountered a group of Singaporean ladies riding up on folding bikes. They were the last touring cyclists we saw on the remainder of our Naksendo ride and on all of our Kyushu ride. 

We were ready for lunch and I spotted an appealing restaurant (御食事処 たつ家) on Google Maps. We made a small detour, parked our bikes and entered Restaurant Tatsuya. The all-Japanese menu was a snap with Google Translate. We both ordered delicious chicken bowls (preceding by salad). We had a sense that we had left the tourist zone and we were back in "real Japan".  We  didn't see much of Nakatsugawa as our route took us along the river and then before we knew it, we were back in rural areas. We opted to take a more direct route to Ena, but it also involved going over two hills that pushed our daily ascent up.  We arrived in Ena before 2:00pm, so we made stops at a drugstore and a Valor supermarket before checking in at the Route-Inn. As expected, we made an appearance at the public bath. We could see the Coco's restaurant from our room and we managed to get a table there before it got too busy on the Saturday night.  51km with 750m ascent.