Rollin' Across Japan Part 1: Tsumago

It's a curious thing: when you have an alarm set at, say 6am or 7am - you know, some standard-early time - it's a real pain waking up and getting your head in gear.  But, when you set it for some unholy time like 4am, you will wake up with ease.  Because if you're planning to wake up that early, then it's for something very exciting indeed.  And when you're waking yourself up at 4am in Japan...

Well, sure enough I was up and out the door by 5am, a cool mist lingering across the suburbia as I headed for the train station.  With the exception of a few early-bird commuters, their heads bobbing in and out of sleep, the carriage was blissfully clear, and I got out my guide book and go through where I was off to.  First stop, Tsumago.

First, a bit of boring history: Back in the day, there was a network of well-worn roads used by travellers on their way from A to B.  This was well before the days of the Shinkansen, and people would spend weeks on the trail, so many towns sprouted up along the routes - post towns.  Nowadays, most of these routes have evolved naturally into highways between the metropolises, or have disappeared altogether, but one such route has been beautifully preserved, running through the Kiso Valley: the Nakasendo.  And one of the most of the best-kept post towns along the road is Tsumago.

Thankfully, it's relative remoteness and lack of a direct train (you have to hop on a bus to get there) kept the crowd numbers down, so it really was like stepping back into a lost Japan; wooden houses, dirt roads, water flowing openly alongside the streets...it was wonderfully evocative.  I had a simple, quiet moment when I slipped off my shoes to rest my feet at one of the airy resthouses, and sitting there cross-legged, I could look down into the valley, where viracious waters toppled over rocks and trees reared up steeply on the far bank.  The view would have been practically identical to a pilgrim of the Edo Period.


I could have stayed in that town all day, and would have loved to, to see it lit up at night, but alas, this was a mere stop-off on the way to the very opposite of an old postal town: my next stop, the bristling, neon-lit brilliance of Nagoya...