I am a foreigner and I would like to walk the Nakasendo Way, do you have any advice?

18 comments

1. 1. I believe there’s plenty of luggage storage facilities at every train station in Tokyo. There are definitely self use lockers there. I am not sure how long you can store luggage in there though so you need to double check as I have not used them.
   2. Make sure you get that walking stick at your first station at the start of the trail and get the station names carved on it along the way. Trying to find the source for it and if I do I will comment, but it must be somewhere online as I read about it.
   3. No. You’ll be fine, just another tourist to the Japanese
   4. I have no idea, sorry.

2. 1. By law, luggage storage facilities are not allowed to hold your luggage for over 14 days, so you’d probably need to rent some commercial storage. While Nakasendo is only about ~550 km long – it usually takes about 30 days (Kyoto to Tokyo), because of significant elevation gains.

   2. Hikone, Sekigahara Battlefield, Gifu, Inuyama, Kiso Valley’s postal towns, Lake Suwa area, Komoro and Karuizawa are typical areas of interest.

   3. Nobody cares.

   4. Wild camping is illegal in Japan. You are expected to book rooms (minshukus, ryokans, hostels) or camp in designated camping stops. There are stretches of Nakasendo (particularly between Lake Suwa and Komoro area) that have very limited accommodation options.

   It’s worth noting that decent hiking season for Nakasendo is fairly short: April/May and late October/November. Summer is not a desirable hiking period with rainy season that is known for flash floods and landslides, followed by extreme heat and humidity of Japanese summer (with typhoon season as a bonus).

3. 1 – Can leave it in coin locker and there is services to keep luggage, but expect to pay minimum 300 to 500 yen by day for that.

   2 – Do you want to walk the entire Nakasendo ? A big portion of it would be walking along some streets and not in a proper hiking train. Yes, there is some portions like from Tsumago to Magome that is a real trail, but it’s not the majority of it. Also keep in mind that the whole Nakasendo from Tokyo to Kyoto is 534 km, so do you want to do it all ? 30 km by day you have for 18 days of walking.

   3 – Going in more countryside area, more chance to come across kids that are excited to see foreigners… do not expect to find as much English as in big cities. As for the lesbian looking part… would you be able to describe a stereotypical looking Japanese lesbian ? No ? Then Japanese people likely have no idea what a stereotypical British lesbian look like.

   4 – Not legal, you need to use camping ground or stop at some sort of accommodation like hostel.

4. For luggage storage- it’s worth asking your accommodations that you’ll be at post hike if they can hold bags. Often they can- I had one hotel hold bags for almost a month prior to check it. That way you could forward your bags there from a Tokyo hotel as you start the hike.

5. 1. Some hostels/hotels can help with storing your luggage for free or with some charges if you stay with them before leaving Tokyo and upon returning to Tokyo. You can write to ask them before making the booking.

6. Oh a dude on Instagram just did it: https://instagram.com/cittaaukoto_japan?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= maybe he’ll write something/would be open to ask questions to?

7. There’s a luggage storage company called https://cloak.ecbo.io/en where they contract out shops to hold luggage. Using them I stored my big suitcase and a smaller suitcase for about a week in a place called Dice in Ikebukuro that was like a karaoke place and net cafe? Everything was super easy.

8. Re: Q4) Wild camping is technically usually not allowed but so long as you are pitch your tent out of the way (i.e. not on the actual trail, find a quiet spot) people do it all the time, Japanese and foreign people. The common advice is to pitch your tent in the evening and pack up first thing in the morning so you don’t bother anyone. Although, depending on when you are planning on doing it, the bugs and weather in Japan in the summer make me almost never want to camp – it’s too hot and too many huge ass (although mostly harmless) creepy crawlies! Oh and bears, we have bears here.

   Personally I’d find a lodging along the way 🙂

9. Do you plan to do anything other than walking the trail (except for whatever you do along the trail)? If not, I think you could easily consider just backpacking and you won’t have to worry about your luggage. FWIW I do two weeks in Japan every year, traveling all over the country including hiking and camping (music festival; bring my own tent, sleeping bag, etc.), with a 40L pack. Obviously space is at a premium and I have to be extremely selective about what I bring (ultralight tent, sleeping bag, etc.) but it’s a really nice feeling to have all this flexibility and not be stuck somewhere, thinking about going back to retrieve bags, whatever.

   Staying overnight at minshukus, hostels, etc. can be much cheaper than you’d expect (exceptions being the mountain places that are literally serviced 100% by helicopter – but that’s about 10000 JPY/night).

   I wrote too many words but there are sections in here about how to find and book small places in the countryside that aren’t necessarily easily accessible from, say, [booking.com](https://booking.com).

   https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/bidu2y/july_2019_toyama_backpacking_tohoku_fuji_rock_how/

10. My brother and I hiked the trail about five years ago. We went in August, which was a mistake.

    In Nagano Prefecture (and elsewhere, if memory serves) rural train stations are kept open during the night for travelers to sleep on the benches. We passed many nights that way. We brought along a tent and spent a couple of nights in it. Otherwise capsule or business hotels. If you are going during a busy time, availability may be limited (we overlapped with the Obon holiday).

    As another poster noted, often there’s not much of a trail: we spent a lot of time walking alongside highways. Still, it was a really fun experience and we had a blast.

11. Writer and photographer [Craig Mod walked the Nakasendo](https://pen-online.com/arts/taking-a-mid-walk-break-at-a-tea-house/) a few years ago. I would strongly recommend you read his book on the walk [Kissa by Kissa](https://shop.specialprojects.jp/products/kissa-by-kissa-3rd-ed). The book is a little more expensive than a mass market printed book but it was published by Craig himself, so is more of an art book.

12. Ask the hotel to hold your luggage for you.

    Another alternative is to forward the luggage to your next hotel using Kuroneko Yamato. Any hotel can arrange it for you, just ask for it.

    It usually takes 1 day to send something anywhere in Honshu BUT you can specify the date & time where you want it to be delivered. I don’t know what’s the maximum time they can hold the luggage for you but something up to a week should be fine. It might end up being cheaper and convenient because you don’t have to come back to same place to pick it up. I have done this many times, sometimes out of pure laziness of carrying a big suitcase on and off the train.

13. I have not done the whole trail, only from Magome to Niekawa. Hope this helps.

    1. Magome to Tsumago. Spend a few days in Nagoya. The bus from Nagoya will bring you straight to the starting point which is the town of Magome. The trek is about 7km. Inside forest trails. Easy trek. Overnight in Tsumago.

    2. Tsumago to Nojiri. About 15km. Then you take the train to Kiso-Fukushima and stay overnight in a ryokan or minshuku.

    3. Yabuhara to Narai. This one is a little tricky. Take the train to Yabuhara in the morning. From the station, you have to walk to the starting point. Look for the signs “torii pass” or in Japanese there is a “鸟” word. This is a forest trail. Up to the ridge and then down to the town of Narai. I love this trek the most. About 7km. Then overnight in Narai in a minshuku.

    4. Narai to Niekawa. 6km. Same as Tsumago, you step out of the lodging and continue the trail. On roads. Then from the station you can a train to Matsumoto and spend a few days there, with a side trip to Kamikochi.

    5. Karuizawa to Yokokawa. From Matsumoto you can take a train to Karuizawa and spend a few days there. The trek to Yokokawa is about 15km, but we didn’t do the whole thing and decide to stop and end our Nakasendo adventure. Karuizawa has a traditional shopping street. At the end of it, there is a small forest trail to Usui pass, then continue to Yokokawa. Forest trail. We stopped at Usui pass, 5km. Then take the bus back to town and do some sightseeing around Karuizawa.

    Taking trains and buses in Japan sounds scary, but actually it’s doable. Just check for the train timings as they are not frequent. As for luggage, we forward them to the ending point.

14. This made me laugh: “I’m ethnically British (read: white af)”.

    Good luck on your travels, the Nakasendo Way looks immense.

15. Besides the well preserved little bit in the mountains which is definitively worth it, most of the rest of nakasendo is actually going through pretty dull suburbs or flat countryside – with the occasional old building that survives. Most of it is car road as well.

    If you’re into hiking, I’d recommend you do the interesting part and skip the rest and check some more interesting regions.

16. I’ve never walked the trail but I did stay in Tsumago for a couple of days a few years ago. I’d recommend that you know at least some basic Japanese as there weren’t as many people who could speak English in that area compared to a big city like Tokyo or Kyoto.

17. Bear spray!

18. I live not too far from part of the Gifu stretch of the Nakasendo trail.
    In the fall I’m going to try and walk part of the Gifu leg – Magome to Ota, about 65km and all in one day for charity!