Nakasendo Diary Archives

The Nakasendo is one of the ancient highways which connected Kyoto with Edo (Tokyo). It stretches over 532 km and was walked on foot to deliver goods and letters in old times. I want to experience what people had to go through and discover Japan on foot – so here I’ll log down my experience day by day!
昔の生活は大変だっただろうね。その大変さと日本をもっと詳しく味わえるため、中山道を歩くことにしました。東京から京都まで532 kmもかかる旅について、毎日こちらでアップデートしたいと思います。

25 Jun

「22日目」Day 22

The last day! I felt amazing this morning when I woke up, and even happier after I moved the curtains to the side and saw that it wasn’t raining as promised. When we got ready though, the room started rocking a bit. Earthquake! I didn’t feel one in a long time. Switching on the TV showed that it was in Kiso, where we had been a week ago. (Nothing really major though, just daily business.) 最後の一日！起きてから元気いっぱい。そして窓から外みたら雨も降ってなくて、もっと嬉しくなった。準備中に久々の揺れ。地震だ！テレビをみたら、先週にいた木曽町は震源地に5−は激しい。皆さんは無事だといいね。 From our start point in Seta we [...]

By Anji SALZ Nakasendo Diary 7 Comments

24 Jun

「21日目」Day 21

I’ll start today’s diary with a rant, because my husband keeps getting up around 5 or so every day to do some work on his laptop (yes he brought his heavy laptop on the journey)… He also types or more like hacks around on the keyboard or moves around in the room which completely cuts my sleep. And he did that almost every day since the second part of the trip and I’m just so sleepy. This morning I was [...]

By Anji SALZ Nakasendo Diary 2 Comments

23 Jun

「20日目」Day 20

Around 08:15 we started at Toriimoto-juku and walked down on the same street. Just straight following the street winding through small villages and crossing occasionally rivers. The sun burned with no mercy even I got sunburnt already in the half cloudy weather yesterday. 鳥居本宿に出てから、ほとんど同じ道を真っ直ぐに降りた感じて行きました。たまに宿や川をを通りました。 It was so hot we had to take two breaks when the sun was at the highest point. Other than that, no much casualties today which would be interesting enough to tell here. 今日はとても暑くかんじましたのでお昼くらいは少し大変でした。昨日はなぜかまた日焼けしちゃったけど、今日も怖かったー Current location 現在地 I’m only a bit worried because [...]

By Anji SALZ Nakasendo Diary 3 Comments

22 Jun

「19日目」Day 19

Today the weather was great again – cloudy with a hint of sun. Not too hot. I overslept by an hour but we were still fine. Took the train back to Sekigahara where we left off yesterday and started walking towards Kyoto. 今日はまた歩きやすい天気でした。1時間ほど寝坊しましたが、無事に電車で関ヶ原まで行って昨日帰ったところからピックアップ。 We passed some key points of the Sekigahara battle and kept on walking through some post time villages. To my slight disappointment there was no mountain climbing involved today, just properly paved routes through the mountain. 関ヶ原の戦場の様々なポイントを通り、宿や山の小道に歩き続きました。 At some point we [...]

By Anji SALZ Nakasendo Diary 2 Comments

21 Jun

「18日目」Day 18

It was heavily raining as expected today so I slept a little longer (not getting up at 6:30 like usual). We had some bread and took the train back to Tarui to continue where we left off yesterday… But a car stopped on the railway crossing so we were stuck on the train for over 2 hours!! 予報どおりにたっぷり雨は降ってましたので、いつもより長く寝た。パンをつまんでから垂井までの電車を乗ったら… 車は踏切にはさまり、電車は2時間も動かなかった。｡ﾟ(ﾟ´ω`ﾟ)ﾟ｡ Afterwards we walked in the rain from Tarui to Sekigahara. Sekigahara was where the most important inland battle took place in October 1600 which Ieyasu [...]

By Anji SALZ Nakasendo Diary 3 Comments

20 Jun

「17日目」Day 17

Today my body still hasn’t recovered completely even I slept quite well. My feet and muscles felt tired all day long and we had to take more breaks. よく寝たのに、今日も体の疲れは取れてなかった。足と筋肉はちょっとだるかったな。 We passed Gifu City and walked all the way close to the next mountain to Tarui-juku. Since there are no hotels in the area we took a train back to Ogaki and had Ramen noodles for dinner. 岐阜市を通って滋賀県になる山の近くにある垂井宿まで歩きました。たた、あのあたりはまた泊まるところ何もないので電車で大垣市にきて宿泊することにした。 Tomorrow might be heavy rain so we will see if we take a break or move on [...]

By Anji SALZ Nakasendo Diary 0 Comments