Hi,
My gf and I are planning our trip to Japan. We will spend 3 days in Magome-Juku and spend a day walking the Nakasendo trail. A quick search on google maps suggested to take the Shinkasen from Tokyo to Nagoya then take the Shinano line to Nakatsugawa (where we will take the bus to Magome).
I noticed the Shinano line has an express train that does Nagoya to Nagano. So I forced google map to make an itinary from tokyo to Nagano with the shinkansen then take the shinano line from Nagano to Nakatsugawa. It is almost the same travel time.
My gf and I are eager to visit the mountains of japan so, for me, it seems to be the better more scenic route than Tokyo-Nagoya-Nakatsugawa.
What do you guys think? (we have our JR pass)