Gary Ayton photography

This lovely hiking trail was hiked in Golden Week 2025 – the last week of April.

Much of the trail can be done in sections with the ability to catch a train to bypass sections you don’t wish to hike. We chose 3 sections to hike, however, there are many more you could explore. Late April, early May was perfect weather for the hike. Obviously in Winter, the hike is not really feasible as it will be covered in deep snow, and in Summer it could be too hot, humid and wet with potentially disease carrying mosquitoes. The only mosquitoes we met with were near the rice paddies in Magome-juku and thus although long pants were recommended, shorts were fine for the time we were on this hike, but you do need rain gear, hat, jumper, umbrella, suntan lotion, track pants or long pants for evenings at overnight accommodations, and water.

We caught a train from Tokyo to Narai which is a historic tourist-oriented post town from the Samarai – Shojun era of the 17th century when the Shojuns ordered the Samarai and their leaders from Kyoto to walk to Edo (now Tokyo) via this trail in the Japanese highlands.

Mt Fuji from our train from Tokyo to Narai (power lines have been removed in editing)

We had decided to start our trail hike in reverse direction to the usual direction and take on the 1250m elevation Torii Pass on the first day with our backpacks full of 3 days gear – but no camping gear as we had booked accommodation for each night of our hike.

Despite being in Golden Week of public holidays in Japan and being late for the cherry blossom season, we were delighted to see very few tourists on our hike and were treated to some beautiful cheery blossoms as well as a wide range of Spring flowers. The weather was fantastic apart from some light rain periods on the first day of our hike.

Narai

Narai-juku was one of the post towns on the Nakasendo highway officially ruled by the Edo Shogunate and is situated exactly between Edo and Kyoto. It retains a historical row of Edo period houses along the street. The buildings are unique in that the second floor overhangs the first (ground floor), with eaves sloping further to overhang the entire building. Originally the roofs were wooden slats held down by rocks but now are steel sheets.

Torii Pass hike

The Torii Pass was considered one of the most difficult ones to go through on the Nakasendo highway. Narai-juku prospered as travelers rested and stayed there in order to prepare for the crossing of the Pass.

The start of our hiking trail

We soon had gained some elevation over-looking Narai-juku

Guess we were supposed to leave money to ensure our safe passage?

No one warned us about the black bears – there was strong advice to ring the bells loudly to scare off any bears on the trail – we dutifully did so along the trail and thankfully did not see any bears.

Traditional toilet near the top of the Torii Pass – we passed on that one as it did not come with instructions

Map near the top

Sorry more ascent to go yet!

Lost in translation – no online Google translate here

Slight misprint on the sign needed to be corrected apparently

Ontakejinja Shrine near the top of Torri Pass

wild magnolias at 1100m elevation

Views of our destination, Yabuhara in the rain

Final descent trail

Yabuhara

Practically the only graffiti seen in our whole trip in Japan

Spring growth on the bonsai maple

Yabuhara hair dresser salon

After hiking down to Yabuhara, we caught a train from there to Suhara where we had booked accommodation for the night

After our hike over Torii Pass we had stayed the night in Suhara and decided to catch a train to Okuwa to shorten our hike to Nagiso. Unfortunately, we probably missed the more picturesque part of this hike with its views back to snow capped mountains and had to make do with more limited views. Much of this hike was in full sun beside a busy road with a wide boulder-strewn river to our right and thus was not as enjoyable as our first day’s hike through remote forests

Suhara

sake barrels

Steps up the railway station

Okuwa

Lovely cute coffee shop was the only place open that day and was mainly catering to the occasional marathon runner coming through but he made great coffee and the buttered chicken curry was great too.

Okuwa to Nagiso

The town is almost deserted but the culture of wearing face masks continues

Do not litter sign – there is almost no litter to be seen anywhere in Japan!

A rural shed on the trail

Nagiso

Nagiso is a small post town on a river which is a main transport hub, connecting the railway from the north with the bus service to Magome and beyond. There is a nice large bridge, some gardens and shrines, as well as a small supermarket and a 7 Eleven in case you need cash out. There is also a luggage transfer service available here and we stayed at the very nice MountainInn.

Higashiyama Shrine, Nagiso

Pedestrian crossing

NB. the powerlines were removed in editing of some of these images

Our last day of hiking the Nakasendo Trail was from Nagiso to Magome-juku via the historic and picturesque post town of Tsumagu-juku and then up the 6km ascent to Magome Pass and then down 2km or so descent to the also picturesque village of Magome-juku.

For this section, we decided to cheat a bit as it was sunny weather, so we arranged for our backpacks to be transferred to Magome-juku Information Centre at a cost of about $AU20 per bag, and we caught the bus from Nagiso to Tsumagu-juku so we skipped the weeping cherry tree section of the walk.

Tsumagu-juku

Vase

Local tailor showing off his hand made clothing

Many houses and buildings had these old indoor open fireplaces for cooking and boiling water – although apparently no longer in use

mud wall detail

Local man with his dog enjoying the attention

Local crafts

The trail from Tsumagu-juku to Magome-Juku via Magome Pass

Wisteria – this is very commonly seen growing wild amongst the forest trees in the region

Cherry blossoms growing wild in the forests

Moss-like growths hanging from a tree with dangling white flowers growing wild in the forest

Even though we were late for the official cherry blossom season, they were still in full bloom near the top of Magome Pass

The local man who made green tea for hikers near top of Magome Pass

Magome chainsaw sculptor and his gardens

rain drain “pipe” common in Japan

The old post village of Magome-juku is perhaps one of the main tourist towns on the route and is the starting point for many embarking on the Nakasendo Trail.

Magome is accessible by bus from Nakatsugawa railway station, or by bus from Nagisa railway station (if you do not wish to hike it over the Magome Pass).

Magome is a picturesque old town in a valley with lovely views of the surrounding mountains and has most of the facilities you will need in terms of luggage transfer options, groceries, accommodation and bus transfers.

Magome Suwa shrine

Magome self-service stall selling bamboo shoots

As we hiked the trail essentially in reverse to most hikers, we caught a bus from Magome-juku to the large city of Nakatsugawa and then a train to the even larger city of Nagoya

Nagoya castle

Ice cream van – I think!

Finally, the bullet train back to Tokyo, and if you did not blink and the weather was kind, you could capture a quick pic of Mt Fuji as I managed to do:

The above photos were all taken with an Olympus OMD E-M1 mark III with mZD 75mm f/1.8 lens – a perfect kit to supplement a smartphone.