Japan Nakasendo Trail – Day 1 – Narai to Suhara via Torii Pass

Written by Gary on May 20th, 2025

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

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.

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.

Narai-juku

Narai-juku

Narai-juku

Narai-juku

Narai-juku

Narai-juku

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.

Torii Pass hike

The start of our hiking trail

Torii Pass hike

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

Torii Pass hike

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

Torii Pass hike

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.

Torii Pass hike

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

Torii Pass hike

Map near the top

Torii Pass hike

Sorry more ascent to go yet!

Torii Pass hike

Lost in translation – no online Google translate here

Torii Pass hike

Slight misprint on the sign needed to be corrected apparently

Torii Pass hike

Ontakejinja Shrine near the top of Torri Pass

Torii Pass hike

Torii Pass hike

Torii Pass hike

Torii Pass hike

Torii Pass hike

Torii Pass hike

wild magnolias at 1100m elevation

Torii Pass hike

Torii Pass hike

Views of our destination, Yabuhara in the rain

Torii Pass hike

Final descent trail

Yabuhara

Yabuhara

Yabuhara

Practically the only graffiti seen in our whole trip in Japan

Yabuhara

Yabuhara

Spring growth on the bonsai maple

Yabuhara

Yabuhara

Yabuhara hair dresser salon

Yabuhara

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

 

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

Suhara village sake barrels

sake barrels

Suhara village

Suhara village

Suhara village railway station

Steps up the railway station

Okuwa

Okuwa village

Okuwa village

Okuwa village

Okuwa village

Okuwa village

Okuwa village

Okuwa village

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 village

Okuwa to Nagiso

Okuwa to Nagiso

Okuwa to Nagiso

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

Okuwa to Nagiso

Okuwa to Nagiso

Okuwa to Nagiso

Okuwa to Nagiso

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.

Nagiso

Nagiso

Nagiso

Higashiyama Shrine, Nagiso

Nagiso

Nagiso

Nagiso

Nagiso

Nagiso

Pedestrian crossing

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

 

Japan Nakasendo Trail – Day 3 Nagiso to Magome-juku via Tsumagu-juku and Magome Pass

Written by Gary on May 20th, 2025

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

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village tailor

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village mud wall

Tsumagu village local with his dog

Tsumagu village crafts

Tsumagu village crafts

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

Tsumagu village

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

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail - moss on trees

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

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

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail local who made green tea for hikers near top of Magome Pass

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

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail

Nakasendo trail tulips as we approached Magome

Nakasendo trail - Magome chainsaw sculptor

Magome chainsaw sculptor and his gardens

Nakasendo trail - Magome chainsaw sculptor

Nakasendo trail - Magome chainsaw sculptor

Nakasendo trail - Magome chainsaw sculptor's gardens

Nakasendo trail - Magome chainsaw sculptor's gardens

Nakasendo trail - Magome rain drain

rain drain “pipe” common in Japan

Nakasendo trail - Magome

 

Japan Nakasendo Trail – Day 4 – Magome and back to Tokyo

Written by Gary on May 20th, 2025

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 village

Magome village

Magome village

Wisteria

Magome rice paddies

Magome Suwa shrine

Magome Suwa shrine

Magome Suwa shrine

Magome rice paddies being ploughed

Magome self-service stall selling bamboo shoots

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

Nagoya castle and Samurai sculpture

Nagoya castle and Samurai sculpture

Nagoya ice cream van

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

Mt Fuji from the bullet train

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.

 

Grampians – Zumsteins to Mackenzie Falls walk

Written by Gary on March 23rd, 2025

A popular medium day walk is to hike from the Zumsteins car park area (public toilets available) up to Fish Falls and then on up to Mackenzie Falls then return.

This should take around 1.5hrs and you should take the usual hiking gear such as water, sun protection, snakebite bandage (just in case) and mobile phone.

There are possibilities of taking a dip in the water but avoid doing so at Mackenzie Falls as drownings have occurred there.

Zumsteins to Fish Falls part is a bit boring but the falls and the walk from Fish to MacKenzie falls is much nicer and far more interesting – so you may wish to cut this walk in half and park at the much busier Mackenzie Falls car park and walk down to Fish Falls then return.

Fish Falls

Fish Falls in late Nov with minimal water flow

Above Fish Falls en route to MacKenzie Falls

Above Fish Falls en route to MacKenzie Falls

MacKenzie Falls

The more impressive MacKenzie Falls even with relatively low flows.

Walk up the steps to the MacKenzie Falls car park (tends to be very busy especially on weekends and school holidays)

The nearby Smith’s Mill camping ground is in walking distance from the car park. This camp ground requires prior online booking through Parks Victoria – there is minimal if any mobile reception in this region.

See my wiki page for more details on camping in the Grampians

See my wiki page for more details on walks in the Grampians.

 

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) 

Written by Gary on January 30th, 2025

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has graced the evening skies of those of us who live in the Southern Hemisphere and is provided a lovely show just visible to the naked eye – if you know where to look about 1 – 1.5hrs after sunset in late January 2025.

The comet will not be returning for another 160,000 years so this was a great opportunity to get out into a rural dark area and get some photos with either a smartphone hand held, or a camera on a tripod with relatively short exposures of 3-5 seconds and a 85-135mm focal length range lens.

comet G3

Taken on 24th Jan 2025 as a stack of 10 images of various exposure and ISO values using a Sony A7RIV camera with Sony 135mm f/1.8 lens at f/1.8. Post-processed in Affinity Photo to perform the stacking, then in OnOnePhotoRaw to adjust contrast, etc.

 

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)

Written by Gary on December 4th, 2024

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) put on a lovely show for astrophotographers in Sept-Oct 2024.

It is a comet from the Oort cloud discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China on 9 January 2023 and independently found by ATLAS South Africa on 22 February 2023. It passed perihelion at a distance of 0.39 AU (58 million km; 36 million mi) on 27 September 2024, when it became visible to the naked eye in the dawn sky (although this required a dark site and was still difficult to see requiring averted vision to see it).
In October 2024, it became an evening object.
The weakly hyperbolic trajectory may or may not result in the comet being ejected from the Solar System.

In early Oct 2024, I tried to capture it while I was in Queensland, Australia for a week but every night was clouded out, and now it was getting dimmer with each night.
Back in Victoria, I tried again on the 21st Oct but this time I was again thwarted by localised high cloud.


Finally, on the 24th October, after walking 20 minutes through a dark forest to get to a vantage point, I managed to capture it – albeit only with a camera on a tripod – no sky tracking device on hand.
It was only just visible to naked eye by averted vision some 1.5hrs after sunset but was more readily visible in binoculars – once you knew where to search for it.

Here are two images, the first a cropped single shot taken with a 24mm f/1.4 lens and edited in OnOne PhotoRAW, the second is a close up using a 85mm f/1.4 lens with 10 images of various exposures stacked in Affinity Photo then processed in OnOne PhotoRAW with minimal cropping.

Sony A7RIV with Sony GM 24mm f/1.4 lens 10secs at f/1.4 ISO 3200 on a tripod

Sony A7RIV with Sony GM 24mm f/1.4 lens 10secs at f/1.4 ISO 3200 on a tripod

The bright star is Venus in the constellation Scorpio sitting below the centre of the Milky Way.

Sony A7RIV with Samyang 85mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.4, varying exposures stack of 10 - 2.5secs ISO 1600-12800, on a tripod

Sony A7RIV with Samyang 85mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.4, varying exposures stack of 10 – 2.5secs ISO 1600-12800, on a tripod

 

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

Written by Gary on May 8th, 2024

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is providing us with a last view after passing the sun on the 21st April 2024 and before it returns in another 71 years.

Last night I decided to camp out for the night to make the most of our lovely calm Autumn weather with clear skies and get some shots before it disappears.

As it was a last minute decision to go and I arrived just before sunset, I didn’t get time to align my equatorial mount except very approximately to south and latitude, and with the declination of the comet being at the celestial equator giving the greatest motion per second, even with the motor drive for the mount I decided to restrict my exposures to 13sec and rely on stacking images at f/1.8, ISO 1600 to try to get maximum imagery with least star movement. The wind came up just at the wrong time just to add a further issue.

The comet was only at 15deg altitude above the horizon and only 28deg from the sun so the twilight made the background quite bright and indeed I almost gave up trying to find it even through binoculars and just as I was about to pack up, I found a faint blob in the binoculars and I then just had to locate it with the camera mounted on the equatorial mount.

All the same, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out and the following is a quick edit – I’m sure dedicated astrophotography software would bring the tail out even more but I’ll take this.

Taken on 7th May 2024, Sony a7RIV with Sony 135mm f/1.8 lens 20x13sec images stacked and cropped.

20 RAW images 13sec 135mm lens f/1.8, ISO 1600 stacked in Affinity Photo’s astrophotography stacking function then exported to TIFF for further post-processing of contrast, etc in On1 Photo RAW.

Depending on the characteristics of your display you should see a broad dust trail going perpendicular to the main comet tail as the comet is actually moving upwards and to the left leaving a broad area of dust behind.

See my other comet photos and information on my wikipedia.

 

Azure kingfisher Gunbower Creek

Written by Gary on May 2nd, 2024

This photograph of this beautiful bird was taken whilst kayaking along the Gunbower Creek in Koondrook, northern Victoria (the creek is an anabranch of the Murray River and a beautiful spot to kayak!).

 

Olympus E-M1 Mark III with Panasonic Leica 200mm f/2.8 lens. Image has been cropped.

The azure kingfisher (Ceyx azureus) is a small kingfisher in the river kingfisher subfamily, Alcedininae.

They are found in northern and eastern Australia and Tasmania, as well as the lowlands of New Guinea and neighbouring islands, and out to North Maluku and Romang. However, it becomes less common in southern regions. They are generally sedentary, although some seasonal migration may occur.

Their habitat includes the banks of vegetated creeks, lakes, swamps, tidal estuaries, and mangroves.

They feed on small fish, crustaceans (such as shrimps, amphipods and freshwater yabbies), water beetles, spiders, locusts, and small frogs or tadpoles.

The breeding season of the azure kingfisher is from September to April in northern Australia and from August to February in southern Australia.

They are usually silent, but make a sharp, squeaky call when breeding.

The above was derived from Wikipedia.

 

 

White plumed honeyeater

Written by Gary on May 2nd, 2024

Whilst camping in northern Victoria along the Campaspe River and its River Red Gums which these honeyeaters love, I was fortunate enough to capture this image of one hovering next to grasses beside the river and backlit by the late Autumn sun.

Olympus E-M1 Mark III with Panasonic Leica 200mm f/2.8 lens. Image has been cropped.

The white-plumed honeyeater (Ptilotula penicillata, formerly Lichenostomus penicillatus) is a small passerine bird endemic to Australia.

They are widely distributed throughout south-eastern Australia (excluding Tasmania), up towards central Australia with patches occurring in central and western Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia. The nominate race, P. p. penicillatus, occurs throughout south-eastern Australia to the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, and throughout the Murray-Darling basin.

It was formerly linked closely to the distribution of river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and a few other riverine species but has undergone range expansion over the last century.

They are mainly found in open sclerophyll woodland, often near water sources, such as wetlands, swamps, creeks, and dams.

Their diet consists mainly of nectar, insects and their products (e.g., honeydew and lerp), manna, fruit, and very occasionally seeds. They mainly feed by gleaning leaf surfaces. Their tongue contains brush-like filaments, consisting of about 60 bristles, which are capable of mopping up nectar.

This is a gregarious species, often found in groups of 12 or more individuals during the nonbreeding season. When I took the above photograph there was a smaller group of perhaps 6 or so around during that day.

Females are relatively more ready to breed from late winter through to summer; Breeding events usually coincide with outbreaks of herbivorous insects.

Above information is taken from Wikipedia.