Solo Hiking Japan's Most Legendary Trail | The Nakasendo [4K]

Good morning from the Kiso Valley, specifically from the Nakasendo Trail that we're going to be hiking a section of today. This trail originally connected Kyoto to Tokyo through a set of post towns, major post towns along the way. There were 69 of them, I believe something like 17 which are located right here in Gifu. In fact, the two most beautifully preserved post towns are Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku, and today we're at the entrance of Magome-juku, and we're going to hike all the way to Tsumago-juku. This here is the lower Magome post town entrance. One of the things that I love is on the other side it says, please have a safe trip back, and I love their policy they have, the Nakasendo Mina de Arukoroshi, as they call it. Stay healthy, stay positive, connected, stay thankful, and stay focused. I love that. I drove out here last night with the full intention of getting some sleep, but you're already thinking that this place looks beautiful. The way it looked at night was just... Needless to say, I didn't get as much sleep as I was anticipating, but I got plenty, and now we've we've got a bit of a hike ahead of us. So excited about this. The sun rises pretty early in the summer, and so do the locals. A lot of the locals actually use this hill for exercise since it's super steep, and I've already been stopped probably three, four times for conversations. Oddly, almost everyone has approached me in English. It's been kind of nice. Last year I was actually able to visit a post town called Narai-juku. I woke up super early in the and the post town that we're going to be walking to, Tsumago-juku, as well. And I got a lot of questions asking, what's a post town? It's just become such a normal word to me, but the answer is really simple. It's just a town with a branch of the post office. That's it. Stepping off the main path for a second, one of the things that makes Magome-juku really beautiful is all the plants and flowers that are set up along the side of the road. Look at these right here. Also, for as simple as it is, there's just something about this scene here that I really like. Magome-juku actually has a lot of Suzume, or sparrow, which are seen as a really good sign. In fact, if a sparrow chooses to nest in your home or business, they just don't touch it. They're like, this is a good thing. We're happy to have them here. And this here actually brings us to the upper entrance of Magome-juku, and that right there is the entrance to the old Nakasendo trail out of Magome-juku. You could spend hours out in Magome-juku. In fact, I have. The sun's out. I came here a couple weeks ago as the starting point to a road trip adventure, and I actually did an entire walk around the town, and I really regretted not having enough time to do the Nakasendo hike all the way to Tsumago-juku, so I promised myself that I'd come back. The walk from Magome out to Tsumago-juku is just about eight kilometers or so, and this section of the Nakasendo trail is connected by this gorgeous cobblestone path, which I'm a pretty big fan of. But there's a fairly large catch. That catch is bears. The area is filled with bears, and they put out these giant, very loud bells for you to ring to hopefully clear the path along the way. I'm actually also carrying bear spray with me right here just in case, but who knows? Maybe we'll meet a bear today, especially since now we're heading into the forest. Also, the cobblestones get really mossy, which means you need to be super careful because you will slip. As time went on, a road was built through the Nakasendo path, so at several points it'll dump you out onto a road like this, but there are always markers to let you know how and where to continue. And along the way, you're likely to find little rest stops and shops like this one here. This one here has free walking sticks. I like this. Take free, but lady and gentleman only. And as curious as I am about this shop here, which at the moment is unmanned, I'm far more curious about the contents of the back of this gentleman's truck. A six-pack of beer and a carton of eggs. It's not even milk and eggs, it's beer and eggs. I just like something about that. Listen to those cicadas. And we are climbing through the mountains, so there are quite a few hills. In fact, so far it's been pretty much entirely uphill. We're at an elevation of, it says, 777 meters right now. 777. Lucky number. And now crossing over from Gifu into Nagano. Over here is a tea house, but considering how early in the morning it is, it's still closed. Maybe we'll get lucky and find an open one along the way. When I was planning my very first trip to Japan ever, I did what most people do and did a ton of research and found all these spots that I wanted to visit. And very high on that list were a few specific post towns. I never got to visit them on that trip, and as the years went by, I lost all the research documents that I'd put together and couldn't remember which post town it was. When I went to Narai-juku, I was very happy, but that wasn't it. Sumago-juku, super happy, but that wasn't it. But when I stumbled on Magome-juku, that was it. And I could not possibly be happier about it. And it wasn't just Magome-juku, it was this Nakasendo trail, this hike. In fact, there's hairpin turns like the ones up here, and I've just been looking forward to walking this for something like more than 15 years. As time went by and tourism started to pick up in Japan, a lot of places started to get really crowded and touristy, and then life gets busy and you find all these excuses not to do the things that you've always wanted to do, which is why I've spent the last year seeking out and exploring all these places. Let's see what the rhoda head holds. And I didn't mean that metaphorically, I actually meant let's see what the rhoda... it could be metaphorical, take it as you will. Who knows? Maybe the rhoda head holds bears. It's a weak bell. And I was right, it's a lucky point. Japanese just love the number 777. You know that thing when you look forward to something for a really long time and you build it up in your head, all these expectations of what it's going to be like when you finally get to do it, and then you do it and it's nothing like you expected at all. Well this, this is the exact opposite. This is amazing. The forest, the moss covered walkways, the way the light cuts through the trees, everything about this place. Look at this, look at the light cutting through the trees every minute to two minutes. So we're gonna keep going with these. So I am 90% no 99% sure that this, this is the spot, this is the spot that when I was planning that first ever trip to Japan I saw this, this set of like cobblestone hairpins. I'm so excited, I'm like a little kid right now. I'm really genuinely so excited. One more thing off the bucket list, just checked off. I honestly don't know what it is that, it's just such a beautiful spot. It's called Gyuto Kanon. I love the English. Black cattle was used to carry a load in a rapid slope space. It is a rest in peace pagoda of the black cattle. Huge space. This Ishibotoke is the only enshrined to Nakasendo. Most are rest in peace pagodas of the horses. Just feels like a piece of old Japan. Like this, this is what I've been looking for all this time. Yes I know I'm looping but I'm just feeling so much happiness. Happiness and sweat but mostly happiness. But we're not that far from Tsumago Juku now so let's push on and get to our next beautiful post town. Now as I go along I keep passing through tiny little towns like this along the way but not a single person, not a single shop, and not a single vending machine. I'm so thirsty. Still on the Nakasendo. Nowhere is open. On the plus side I drank a solid liter and a half of water before. It says drink vending machine. Hanaya might be my savior. It says drink vending machine. That's how rare they are in this area. But it actually has to have a sign to say drink vending machine. I'm paying concert prices for this water but at this point I didn't care. I feel a thousand times better. Wait a minute. Oh I almost missed that too. It is a good thing that I'm always looking for the more difficult path. It's so steep. No we were done with the uphill. I'm always really happy to get into the forested section because the sun is... lizard... The sun is blistering hot today. It's 34 degrees right now so the direct sunlight is far from walk I would really recommend doing it in June and heat and everything aside a lot of this walk has been lined with hydrangeas that when I came here last time were beautiful but considering the fact that we're into the depths of summer now have all died I think June or early July would be the perfect time to do this walk. It'd just be visually spectacular. And there we are. We made it. We made it. If you want to see a whole video of this area I will link one up above. And now you might be wondering well Norm you just walked eight kilometers how are you gonna how you gonna get back to the car? And it's for you. Those of you who stuck around to the end that I've hidden something here. You see because those of you who stick around to the end you're my favorites. Yes I play favorites. I play favorites hard. It's basically you, the notification squad, and the comment squad. So if you're a notification comment squad person who watches to the end you're the trifecta. But I hid something over here so let's go retrieve it. I came out here in the middle of the night last night to hide this here. It's a bicycle but it's got a really powerful motor so it actually counted as a scooter. It's got a license plate and everything. And this is how I'm gonna get back to the car and then the whole thing just folds up and goes in the car. And now I'm off to the mountains of Nagano to find a forest that some describe as being magical. But that, that's a story for next time. I've literally always wanted to do this!