Name: Solo Hiking Japan's Most Legendary Trail | The Nakasendo [4K]
Uploaded: 2025-09-06T18:04:19.000Z
Duration: 20 min 12 s
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Present continuous

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.

Past simple

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 Minna de Arukoroshi as they call it.

Stay healthy, stay positive, connected, stay thankful and stay focused.

I drove out here last night with the full intention of getting some sleep but if 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 got a bit of a hike ahead of us.

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.

Last year I was actually able to visit a post town called Narai-juku.

I woke up super early in the morning to go there 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.

Stepping off the main path for a second, one of the things that makes Tsumago-juku really beautiful is all the plants and flowers that are set up along the side of the road.

Also, for as simple as it is, there's just something about this scene here that I really like.

Tsumago-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.

And this here actually brings us to the upper entrance of Tsumago-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.

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 8 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.

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, 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.

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.

It's not even milk and eggs, it's beer and eggs.

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.

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 Naraijuku, I was very happy but that wasn't it.

Sumagojuku, super happy but that wasn't it.

But when I stumbled on Magomejuku, that was it and I could not possibly be happier about it.

And it wasn't just Magomejuku, 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.

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.

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.

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 up here.

It's kind of concerning that in this stretch here there have been bear bells probably every minute to two minutes.

Okay, 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.

One more thing off the bucket list, just checked off.

I honestly don't know what it is, it's just such a beautiful spot.

Black cattle was used to carry a load in a rapid slope.  It is a rest in peace pagoda of the black cattle.

This Ishibotoke is the only enshrined to Nakasendo.

Most are rest in peace pagodas of the horses.

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.

We're not that far from Tsumagojuku now, so let's push on and get to our next beautiful post town.

As I go along, I keep passing through tiny little towns like this along the way.

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

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