Hello and welcome to one of the busiest month’s of my one year stay in Japan! Ever since I had gotten my visa back in May 2022, I had this grand plan on going on a Journey Across Japan-esque multi-week travelling session that would take me all the way down south to Kagoshima and November was the month I finally got to do it in! I’ll have to split this month in at least two parts because I fear it might end up too long otherwise. Imgur really gave me trouble when uploading pictures so if there are duplicates, that is why!
As always, you can check out my other reports down below.
[Part 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/178mxdx/one_year_in_japan_the_open_air_sauna_june_july/)| [Part 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/17kfjpl/one_year_in_japan_escaping_the_heat_august_2022/) | [Part 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/17yfls8/one_year_in_japan_sapporo_my_beloved_august_22/) | [Part 4](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1b1mkrh/one_year_in_japan_big_news_first_mistakes/) | [Part 5](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/1b88w18/one_year_in_japan_a_most_enjoyable_kyoto_october/)
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When I first planned out my route, I was hoping to see a fair share of Autumn foliage along the way and I think I got a _decent_ amount and was satisfied overall. The route that I had planned out would include **Kanazawa**, **Nagoya**, a hike along a portion of the **Nakasendo**, **Okayama**, **Onomichi**, the **Shimanami Kaido cycling route**, **Matsuyama**, **Hiroshima**, **Fukuoka**, **Nagasaki**, **Matsumoto** and ultimately **Kagoshima**.
**Kanazawa**
The first stop on my journey down south was Kanazawa. I had never been there before and was very excited to check the city out since it seemed to be a quieter, more laid back Kyoto and I was not disappointed. Of course, by now Kanazawa isn’t exactly some hidden gem – it is getting more and more popular but back in 2022, shortly after the borders reopened, the place was still relatively empty. On the day I arrived, I just walked around the city to get a feel for it, checking out the [river](https://imgur.com/a/tFrnfCu) and then Kenrokuen, one of the three great gardens of Japan and it definitely deserves its [praises](https://imgur.com/a/MlfA4B0). I didn’t see peak Autumn foliage here but still loved it. It’s a fairly large garden and I hope I can check it out in a different season (particularly Winter) some day because it has so many nice spots to revisit. You can also get a nice view of the city’s surroundings from inside the garden.
Since it was already late in the day, I decided to head to Omicho market for a place to eat at. I ended up eating at Kofuku an ordered [sashimi](https://i.imgur.com/vzpyfwQ.jpg) which was…incredibly “mid” and overpriced. I had way better sashimi or seafood in general before and this felt a little bit like a tourist trap but maybe that’s just my impression.
The following day started early and I began my walk at [Oyama shrine](https://imgur.com/a/H6q77WC), followed by Kanazawa castle park. A friendly employee of the [Gyokuseninmaru](https://imgur.com/a/bKxGhr1) garden started talking to me and gave me a tour of not just the garden, but even some of the outer castle park, which he wasn’t even employed at. He told me a bunch about the city’s and the castle’s history and we shared some Japan travel stories, it was a really nice experience. Once he returned to his “post”, I checked out the rest of the [park](https://imgur.com/a/8fZMx0T). The castle itself burned down and never got rebuilt, so only a few storehouses and a gate survived – but they’re still very well maintained and nice to see.
Afterwards, I decided to stroll towards Nagamachi, the former samurai district of Kanazawa. On my way there, I took a small tea break at a cafe called Saint Nicolas. Decided to be decadent and ordered [two cakes](https://i.imgur.com/ToqMJl2.jpeg) and both were REALLY good, to my untrained tongue, that is. Honestly, I should have gone back for another round sometime later. [Nagamachi](https://imgur.com/a/W3NU14u) itself is fairly small, but still worth if you like seeing older architecture. Quite a few of these old buildings are open to the public, sometimes you can see the inside, sometimes you can see the adjacent, small gardens (see pictures above).
I still had a bunch of time left in the day, perfect to check out [Higashi Chaya](https://imgur.com/a/J5pBfHw). Once again, the distinct architecture of this place makes it stand out a lot. There are a whole lot of tea houses and small restaurants around, although I did not check any out because this was the one area in the city where a lot of people congregated. There are a lot of small shrines surrounding the area too, up on hills and such but the sun was slowly starting to set and I didn’t want to end up in the woods at night so I simply walked back [along the river](https://imgur.com/a/60ry2dl) to my accommodation for some quick laundry before once again heading out to check out the castle park. The garden had a music and light show going on and I did take pictures but they turned out really bad because my phone just wasn’t good enough to capture all the trees and leaves with the projected lighting on them properly. The castle did have some illuminations going on too and these pictures were [passable](https://imgur.com/a/9hkARj3), however.
And that was basically it for Kanazawa. I definitely will revisit the city some day because it has such an incredible relaxed pace to it. Maybe that changed since then but even still, it’s a beautiful city.
**Nagoya – Nakasendo hike**
Full disclosure: the only reason I went to Nagoya was to use it as a hub to travel from, specifically for the Nakasendo hiking trail.
Unfortunately for me, the morning of my departure started out with an inconvenience as there was heavy rain fall in some parts of Japan. My initial shinkansen ride was cancelled altogether due to land slides but it was very easy to get a ticket for another time slot and board the next train, although I did have to change at Maibara (I think?) and get a ticket there to board my final train to Nagoya. **Pro tip**: on that train switching topic; one thing I have noticed all across Japan is that people – both Japanese and tourists – will rather line-up at both ticket booths and machines inside train stations that have connecting gates/lines. Such was the case at Maibara for me and there was no way I would make the next train if I had lined up, so I simply went outside the gates and used the machines there. There was NOBODY at these so I got my ticket within a few seconds and then got the very next train in time.
Anyway, the only thing I did in Nagoya was walk around a bunch, check some [spots](https://imgur.com/a/hc2VuNI) in the city but kept it rather laid back because I wanted to be in top shape for the hike on the following day. Can highly recommend trying out [misokatsu](https://i.imgur.com/MVDhGfr.jpg) if you’re ever in Nagoya.
Woke up bright and early the next day since I wanted to use the whole day to hike, I didn’t want to just do the typical Magome-juku to Tsumago-juku portion, but a bit more. So I took a train to Nakatsugawa and pretty much winged it, but the final goal was Nagiso, because that was the easiest place to take a train ride back to Nagoya from. As a good little tourist, I went to the tourist information center and asked around where the start of the hiking trail is located and the lady helped me by handing me a map and marking where to walk from the center itself. With my map in hand, I quickly found where to go and began my long walk! The first stop was Ochiai-juku.
And my god, was this an absolutely beautiful day to do this on. I don’t even know where to begin with my praises for this hiking trail to be honest. At the beginning, you have to walk through a bit of a [townscape but even there, the scenery is absolutely beautiful. There are a lot of little shrines along the way,](https://imgur.com/a/LBgcZT9) everywhere you look you can see some mountains and the best part of it all was that because I had a route in mind, I could look at things in the distance and know I will end up there at a later point and the feeling of reaching those places and then looking back was amazing. When I got closer to Ochiai-juku, I finally got to the famous [cobblestone](https://imgur.com/a/qQUSagu) path that was very well preserved from back in the old days when people actually walked this route regularly to reach different postal towns. I ran into another hiker here or there and everyone was always very friendly and wished me good luck “on the path”. I took a LOT of [pictures](https://imgur.com/a/Z6rdGqm) and can’t pinpoint every single one to a specific location. Some were taken in between towns, some close to Magome-juku.
The closer I got to Magome-juku, the more people I saw, which was not surprising because Magome and Tsumago are the most famous parts of the route and the one most tourists visit, since they’re very picturesque. When I reached [Magome-juku](https://imgur.com/a/zK2n36z), I took a small break in one of the small restaurants and had some zarusoba before [continuing](https://imgur.com/a/0mEnszb) onwards to Tsumago-juku. One thing to note, of course, is the many [warning signs](https://imgur.com/a/4iiXAwc) for bears. From this point onwards, I’ve rang a whole lot of bells that were dotted along the route and which were supposed to scare away bears that might be in the vicinity. Now I don’t know if these do anything but I am not going to lie – I felt relief whenever I saw one because it gave me some sense of safety lol. Those things are also _very_ loud and ringy. Just like before, here are the [pictures](https://imgur.com/a/GzyEHBK) I took on this portion of the hike. I absolutely love the change in colours displayed here. Of course Autumn foliage is very pretty when everything is just red, but I personally enjoy them more when I have a range of colours and there certainly was a lot of variety here!
Fun bonus fact: at some point, my mother video called me when I was in the middle of the mountains in who knows [where](https://imgur.com/a/sxgirxv) and the connection was flawless. I wish reception was this good in Germany… A not so fun bonus fact: some of [these](https://i.imgur.com/mjeW7E8.jpg) huts had toilets and needless to say, if there’s toilets in wooden huts along a route that is in the woods, there will be critters in there. I did not enjoy.
After a [while](https://imgur.com/a/VJQs4Wf), I arrived at [Tsumago-juku](https://imgur.com/a/VK04WfL), which was fairly empty. My photo app says I took pictures here around 3:30pm and the sun was already starting to set and my goal was Nagiso after all. It was still around an hour or so away from Tsumago but I decided to follow through with the original plan and picked up the pace a bit, only to immediately get side-tracked and checking out the [castle ruins of Tsumago-juku](https://i.imgur.com/az65k8Q.jpeg). In hindsight, this was a bit of a stupid idea because as I said, the sun was setting, I was on a bit of a timer because I didn’t want to hike through the mountains in the dark, yet I decided to hike up on top of the hill to the ruins. And the path wasn’t the most secure, I remember having to climb a bit on the “path” (if you can call it that) to get to the top and if I had slipped, I don’t wanna know what might have happened so…if you ever plan to go up there, make sure you have plenty of time and aren’t in a rush because I could have easily made a misstep. BUT nothing bad happened and I got to see [this fantastic view of Tsumago-juku](https://i.imgur.com/QtRxOpt.jpeg). I then made my way back down and got on my way to Nagiso proper. From this point on, the old cobblestone paths aren’t really a thing anymore unfortunately, but that’s alright because no matter what part of the route I walked through on this day, it was all [breathtaking](https://imgur.com/a/qHEWLAH) and somewhat… meditative? I can’t exactly describe the feeling I had but something about hiking through quiet mountains with nothing but the sounds of nature, the sun setting, pretty colours all around made me feel at peace, kinda. Maybe someone can relate.
And then, I finally arrived at [Nagiso](https://imgur.com/a/8OJ6Nb9). To be honest, I had such mixed feelings at this point. Call me dramatic, but I felt both sad and happy that I managed this hike in one day and the train ride back was spent looking at my phone and just marvelling at all the places I walked through that day. Speaking of the train ride though, Nagiso station is kinda funny. I got there at around 4pm and there were no gates for suica cards and there was also nobody at the station working. The only way to get tickets, however, is to buy them there. I basically just went through the unmanned gates, onto my train and then paid the fare at Nakatsugawa station, where I then took the next train to Nagoya. Felt a bit CRIMINAL to just stroll onto a train like that but apparently that’s how it works that “late” in the day in such a remote place. My feet were hurting and I did not really have the energy to look for a proper dinner that day so I just went to a McDonald’s…
And with that, the day was over!
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If I had to rank my favourite moments of the whole year, the Nakasendo hike would definitely rank among at least my top 5, if not 3. As I described above, this weird tranquil feeling I had during the entire thing, coupled with the surroundings and the occasional fellow hiker who passed by just made for an outstanding experience. If you ever plan to do this exact route for some reason; you don’t need to be in tip-top shape. I was skinny-fat as hell and the only type of sports I did prior to coming to Japan was jogging a few times a week. But I also was used to walking about 60-70 kilometers every week since arriving in Japan, which definitely prepared me for this hike. If you’re used to somewhat long distance walking, this should be doable considering I didn’t exactly walked fast! My Google Fit app tracked around 25 kilometers over 7 1/2 hours. Also, needless to say, I did this in November when the danger of bears wasn’t as high but since then, things changed a bit and IIRC, last year there had been more bear attacks in Japan due to the effects of climate change. Keep that in mind.
If you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask and I will try to answer as best as I can. The next report will feature Okayama, Kurashiki, Onomichi and the famous Shimanami Kaido!
by Dumbidiot1323