Walk the Old Nakasendo: Narai, Tsumago & the Magome Pass — 2 Days

Once called 'Narai of a Thousand Houses', this is the longest surviving Nakasendo post town — a full kilometre of two-storey wooden inns and shops with overhanging eaves and lattice fronts, a designated Important Preservation District. It feels less curated than Tsumago and more lived-in, with sake brewers, comb-makers and lacquer shops still trading.

Townscape begins right at JR Narai Station (Chuo Line). Free to walk; shops roughly 9:00-17:00. The early-June Kiso Lacquerware & Narai Post-Town Festival is a highlight if your dates align.

A graceful arched wooden footbridge over the Narai River just south of the post town, built without a single central pier from Kiso cypress (hinoki). Floodlit at night, it's the photogenic counterpoint to the low town facades — a five-minute detour from the main street.

Free, always accessible. Beside the Michi-no-Eki Narai roadside station, an easy short walk from the townscape.

One station from Narai sits Kiso-Hirasawa, the workshop village that has produced Kiso lacquerware (Kiso-shikki) for four centuries — a separate Preservation District of lacquer studios and showrooms. This is where Narai's lacquer is actually made; you can watch craftspeople and buy directly, from chopsticks to heirloom bowls.

Free to wander; individual workshops keep their own hours (many closed irregularly — check ahead for specific studios). The Kiso Lacquerware Museum here is a good orientation stop.

A traditional ryokan on Tsumago's preserved main street, run by a family whose owner speaks several languages — a rarity in the valley that makes it a favourite with foreign walkers. Tatami rooms, a small garden, and a multi-course dinner built on river fish, mountain vegetables and Kiso beef. You wake inside the post town after the day-trippers have gone.

Around ¥12,000-16,000 per person with two meals (2026 approx.). Small — reserve well ahead, especially autumn. Dinner is served early, around 18:00, in the local style.

A post town climbing a stone-paved slope, its water-wheels turning and the Gifu plains falling away below — on a clear day Mt. Ena stands at the top of the street. Rebuilt after fires but beautifully so, it's the start of the famous walk and the birthplace town of novelist Shimazaki Toson. Have a coffee at the top before you set off downhill toward the pass.

Reach it by the early Tsumago-Magome bus (~25 min). Free to walk; shops from ~9:00. Drop bags at the info center for forwarding to Tsumago (¥1,000/bag, mid-March to end November).

The heart of the walk: the original Nakasendo over the Magome Pass (about 800 m), through cedar and bamboo, past the Tateba tea house where you can still rest with free tea, the Odaki and Medaki waterfalls, and bear-bell posts you ring as you go. About 7.7 km Magome to Tsumago, mostly downhill after the pass, two to three hours at a steady pace.

Wear real shoes; carry water. The free tea house (Tateba-jaya) is roughly midway. Bears are present — ring the bells. Trail is open year-round but icy in deep winter.

The secondary lord's lodging, rebuilt in 1877 entirely from Kiso cypress once the imperial-era ban on felling it had lifted — a soaring, soot-darkened interior lit by a single shaft of sun through the irori smoke. Now a museum, with the adjoining local history hall explaining how Tsumago led Japan's first town-preservation movement.

Combined Waki-honjin + history museum ¥600; or a three-site ticket with the Honjin ¥700 (2026 approx.). Open 9:00-17:00; the Waki-honjin closes on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays.

The reconstructed principal inn where daimyo and court envoys stayed crossing the Kiso, restored on its original plan with the formal upper rooms, the lord's bath and palanquin entrance. Smaller and more austere than the Waki-honjin, it completes the picture of how rank shaped a night on the road.

Honjin ¥300 alone, or covered by the three-site ticket. Open 9:00-17:00. A short walk along the main street from the Waki-honjin.