Japan 2024 Nakasendo Trail

Cycling the old Samurai route between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto

The Nakasendo (Central Mountain Route) linked Edo & Kyoto with staging posts (juku or post towns) between 1600 to late 1800"s. It was preferred by many travellers because it did not involve fording rivers on the alternate coastal routes. The best preserved towns of Narai, Tsumago and Magome (Kiso Valley) are popular with domestic tourists and increasingly foreign visitors.

Cycling Review

The Nakasendo is a good all-round cycling route with a mix of history, quiet roads and we found the accommodation and eating to be of a high standard. The Nakasendo is an excellent option to ride between the Osaka/Nara/Kyoto area and NW Tokyo. The route is in central Honshu with good access from a number of gateway cities. we didn't feel that the Nakasendo reached the high standards of Shikoku or Kyushu, but it was still very good.

We saw about a dozen bicycle tourists on the ride, all between Suwa and Nakatsugawa. We encountered modest numbers of foreign tourists in and around the central Nakasendo post towns. West of Nakatsugawa, we saw but a handful of foreign tourists until we reached Kyoto.

Route Selection

This was our 3rd cycling trip to Japan, so I was getting better at route selection. The intent was a relaxed, lifestyle trip with modest daily distances; we were tourists on bikes. We have a low tolerance for traffic and we gravitated to small roads but little roads require more navigation and often have steeper grades than newer roads. I started with the GS Astuto gpx (posted on the Facebook Japan Cycling Navigator Group site) as a base route. The base route stays quite true to a variant of the historic route. I modified the route to fit our accommodation options and made a few changes either based my interpretation of Google Street View or to add other minor detours. We rode from the very edge of the Kantō Plain (GC Astuto Road House) to Kyoto. Our track is posted on the RideWithGPS website and can be downloaded: GPX of our Nakasendo Route.

Accommodation

We had nine nights along the way; 3 nights sleeping on tatami mats, 3 nights at Route-Inn and 3 nights at other hotels. I booked primarily through Booking.com, but reserved 2 nights at Route-Inn directly on their English language site. Agoda, Japanican, Trip and AirBnB are other obvious accommodation portals to use. If you use Google Maps to search for accommodation, it will guide you to the appropriate booking portals. We typically booked twin beds because many Japanese double beds are quite narrow. I had tried to book other traditional accommodations in the Kiso Valley (even on Japanese language sites), but the dates didn't work. The Kiso Valley has limited accommodation options (especially on Saturday nights or holiday periods), so it is best to book as far in advance as possible. The Kiso Valley alternative hotels that we stayed of Kamao and Atera-so were perfectly fine, a little ways out of town, but they provided dinner and breakfast. All the hotels that we stayed at, except the Niko Hotel, had public baths.

Sleeping on tatami mats: Kamao Hotel (Kiso), Atera-so (Kiso), Tobaya Ryokan (Hikone).

Route-Inn hotels: Shiojiri, Ena, Gifu (all were relatively new hotels with good breakfast buffets)

Other: AQA Hotel (Saku), Oustat (Tajimi), Niko (Kyoto)

Overnight bicycle parking: I always asked at check-in, where they suggest we park the bicycles. Kamao, Tobaya, AQA, Oustat offered parking in the hotel lobby. Niko has underground parking. The others were outside, alongside the hotel building. We secured them with cable locks. Japan is a safe country.

We stayed at the GS Astuto Riders House the night before we started, as we were renting bikes from them. It offered more of a personalized atmosphere, though it was on the more costly side.

Highlights & the Less Inspiring

No route is ideal; it can't be all perfect. I mention the less inspiring because an other rider might find better alternatives through some of those sections.

High points include the Day 1 climb on #18 to Karuizawa past the Megane Bridge (nice gradient climb) and the Day 2 train ride from Saku to Suwa to avoid a rainy long climb and descent. We enjoyed the quiet Kiso Valley roads particularly south of Kiso/Agematsu on the western side of the river and the Atera River side trip. Another day in the Okuwa area would allow for some fine rides along more tributaries of the Kiso River.

Narai, Tsumago and Magome are special towns. The riding on both sides of Magome Pass was enjoyable. We rode up to Ōkute-juku on lovely quiet roads. We detoured off the Old Nakasendo trail to Tajimi and that allowed us to visit the Zen Buddhist temple of Eihō -ji. There were some nice tiny roads north of Tajimi. Inuyama was a fun place to visit (primarily domestic tourists). The lengthy bike path along the Kiso River, west of Inuyama was a treat.

Riding around the northern outskirts of Ogaki was pleasant enough, but Sekigahara to Samegai (over the Imasu-toge Pass) was a flowy, mostly quiet, delight. Hikone was one of our favourite stopovers (charming historic areas, few foreign tourists). The Kozeki Pass road from Ōtsu to the outskirts of Kyoto was quiet.

Less inspiring sections would include the section between Karuizawa and Saku (the Old Nakasendo was a dud, it might have been better to stay closer to the Yu River on #156). The topography of the Narai Valley was such that the railway, highway #19 and the Old Nakasendo were squished close together, so we were often within earshot of the #19 traffic and sometimes we had to ride parts of the often busy (with trucks) #19, at least on the sidewalk.

The Tori Pass (south of Narai) has three alternatives; hike-a-bike over the top, a 2km older tunnel with a sidewalk or the train. We opted for the tunnel, but perhaps we should have pushed over the pass.

The Lake Biwa bicycle path was appreciated but we found it underwhelming as it was often along side a busy #25 and #559. However,part way along it, the Miyagahama Beach/Chomeiji Onsen detour along #25 had virtually no traffic and was brilliant. In hindsight, we should have detoured up to the Chomeiji pagoda because we reached Kyoto in good time. If I were to do it again, I would be tempted to navigate a route through agricultural lands south of Chomeiji Onsen to reach Ōtsu, rather than the Lake Biwa bicycle path.

The Bikes

We opted to rent e-bikes on our third Japan bike trip. In the previous trips, we had brought our own touring bikes. Sheila was having a knee issue and in fairness, Japan is a mountainous country. We went with top-end Crow E-bikes, rented from GS Astuto. They felt like snappy road or gravel bikes and they were nicely geared. The little motors were responsive when you put them to the test. E-bikes in Japan are assist-only and they do not provide assistance beyond 25kmh. The Crow bikes run on slim batteries, and we were provided with a spare battery each, though we used one of the spares just once. Charging the batteries was straightforward and we did so each day in our room on arrival (completed within a couple of hours).

Tim, the owner of GS Astuto, is technically very capable and offered advice on many topics. We were able to keep in contact using "WhatsApp" during the ride (most visitors to Japan, like ourselves, had data-only phone plans). As it turned out, Tim was leading a tour when we collected our bikes, and we hadn't been 100% clear on how the bikes should be configured, so we spent some time installing back racks for our panniers (they were originally set up for "bikepacking"). Later in the ride, Tim drove some distance and met us to sort out a few minor issues. and that was much appreciated.

Pre-Ride: arrival and soft landing

It was a long flight day; we gained 8 hours but lost a calendar day, along the way. It took longer than we wished to get through Japan immigration & customs (even using the Visit Japan Web app). It was a short train ride from Narita Terminal 1 to Narita City on the Hankyu line. We had loaded our phones with the "Suica" app, so going through the ticket areas was a snap. We stayed with an "old friend" in Narita; the Welco Hotel. The Welco is a little tired, but it's clean, central and inexpensive. Rather than go to sleep at 6:00pm, we had a short walk in Narita, withdrew cash out of a Seven-11 ATM and went for a simple ramen meal at Hidakaya, in the centre of town. We ordered our meal from a machine and we were in and out in under 15 minutes. We slept well. We woke early and walked over to Gusto (ガスト on signage), a family restaurant for breakfast. It was our first time to be served by a robot.

Hankyu line from NRT Terminal 1 to Narita City ¥280 (1.75USD)

We were tired and kept dinner simple; ramen and gyoza. The total bill for two: ¥1730 (11USD).

We had breakfast at Gusto, served by a robot. Two breakfasts with coffee and juice cost ¥1300 (8USD)

We had a 2:00pm check-in at our "safe house" (AirBnb rental for jet lag recovery) in Sayama, some ways NW of central Tokyo. The trains are relatively easy to navigate with Google Maps. We had a three train journey, that passed through the centre of Tokyo that was going well until I touched the wrong part of the my phone screen and lost the routing. We had to use old fashioned common sense at Takandanobaba Station to find and get on the last leg of the journey to Minami-Ōtsuka Station. We had extra time, and had a mediocre Sri Lankan lunch before reaching Rose House We arrived ten minutes early and our host, Nobuko, was there to greet us and run us through the details of the three bedroom house, that would be our home for three nights. We rode the house bikes"mama-chari" (everyday utility, mama's bikes) to the local supermarket for dinner and breakfast supplies and settled in.

Our host in Sayama.

The kitchen was fully equipped.

The house backed out on to gardens and a forest

I had selected Rose House because it looked appealing and because it was nearby to historic Kawagoe. It was only later that I discovered that our stay coincided with the annual 360 year-old Kawagoe Festival. We were up early, still partly on a different time zone, and rode to Kawagoe, mostly on side streets, parallel to the train line. People were still setting up when we arrived so we were able to ride in the historic area. Floats began to move about and crowds developed. We took in a Shinto shrine, a museum before riding home via a well provisioned Belc Supermarket. We picked up lunch and dinner materials and took it easy for the remainder of the day. 20km ride.

We used the house bikes for a ride to Kawagoe , an Edo period town.

Edo period Kawagoe building.

Kawagoe

Kawagoe festival

Kawagoe Hikawa shrine

Bicycle parking areas are sometimes substantial outside of supermarkets like at this Belc supermarket .

Belc supermarket , leaving the bagging area.

Returning home for a nap.

I'll call it recovering from jet lag, but it was a slow day. We managed a bike ride back to Belc Supermarket. We wanted to see some of the Kawagoe Festival by dark, so we ventured out on bikes to the Minami-Ōtsuka Station late afternoon. We parked the bikes there and took a frequent train to Hankawagoe station. We wandered around the crowded streets and opted to return early evening.

Kawagoe festival

It was a transfer day and we left the house by 8:00am, to catch the #61 bus to Kawagoe station for a northbound train on the Tobu-Toju line. We made a transfer at Ogawamachi to the Hachiko line for a local train to Takasaki (all had been revealed by Google Maps). We had a look around the Takasaki mall and had a delicious lunch in the Takasaki Station area. Japanese train stations restaurants often offer excellent food at competitive prices. We took our third train of the day on the Shin-Etsu line to Nishi-Matsuida station and walked to the GS Astuto Riders House. I had booked and paid for e-bikes at GS Astuto . We spent most of the afternoon, sorting out the bikes and going for a test ride. We stayed at the Riders House and walked about 800m to the closest restaurant and had a non-memorable dinner at the Fujiya Ramen restaurant.