Japan Nakasendo Trail – Day 2 – Suhara to Nagiso

Written by Gary on May 20th, 2025

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

Our accommodation in Suhara – an awesome old house – photo taken with Samsung phone

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!

Trail – taken with Samsung

Temple along the trail – taken with Samsung

Kiso River which we followed along the trail – taken with Samsung

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.