Kansai and the Kiso Valley · Japan
Kyoto and the Nakasendo
A city of workshops and a post road through the cedar mountains, walked in the order the old travellers walked it.
Most first trips to Japan are a shopping list. This is the opposite: two weeks in one city and one valley, going slowly enough that the second visit to a place is better than the first.
Kyoto rewards repetition. The same temple in the rain in March is a different building from the same temple in October. We build in return visits, early mornings before the coaches, and three or four workshop appointments — a knife sharpener, an indigo dyer, a woman who has been making bamboo tea whisks for forty-one years — that you would never find alone and could not book without Japanese.
Then the Nakasendo: the inland post road between Kyoto and Edo, a stretch of which still runs through the Kiso Valley between wooden post towns. You walk it in sections, your bag goes ahead by van, and you sleep in minshuku where dinner is at six because that is when dinner is.
- Best time
- Late March to early May, and mid-October to early December
- Why then
- Cherry blossom is late March to mid-April in Kyoto and unpredictable to within a week. Autumn colour in the Kiso Valley peaks in early November.
- When not to
- Mid-July to early September. Kyoto sits in a basin and is genuinely unpleasant in high summer — 35C with humidity and no wind. Also Golden Week, when the whole country travels at once.
- Getting there
- Fly to Osaka Kansai, then a 75-minute train to Kyoto. The Kiso Valley is reached by limited express from Nagoya; we handle the seat reservations, which cannot be done reliably from abroad.
What it is for
Highlights
Workshops in the northern wards
Four appointments with makers, arranged in advance and interpreted. Not demonstrations — actual working studios.
The Kiso Valley on foot
Three days of walking between post towns on stone-paved sections of the old road, with bags moved ahead.
A morning at the wholesale market
Nishiki before the shutters go up, with a chef who buys there, which is the only way it is interesting.
Temple lodging at Koyasan
An optional two nights on the mountain, vegetarian dinner, and the morning fire ceremony at six.
Kyoto and the Nakasendo in six frames
From the advisor
Why we walk it north to south
Almost every operator walks the Kiso section from Magome to Tsumago, because it is downhill and the bus timetable is easier. We send travellers the other way.
Uphill out of Tsumago you are walking into the cedar rather than out of it, and you arrive in Magome in the late afternoon with the valley opening behind you instead of ahead. It is an hour longer and considerably better. Our advisors will still book it the easy way if you would rather; we will just tell you what you are trading.
Journeys
Trips that go to Kyoto and the Nakasendo
8 days · Private
Kyoto Craft Season
A week in Kyoto built around makers rather than sights: looms, knives, indigo and bamboo, with an interpreter and a great deal of walking.
Culture and craft€5,600from, per person
11 days · Small group
The Nakasendo on Foot
Three days in Kyoto, then the surviving stretch of the inland post road through cedar forest and wooden post towns, walked uphill.
Walking and trailsCulture and craft€5,200from, per person
Experiences
Days here worth flying for
Craft and makers
The Nishijin looms
A working obi weaver's studio in the textile district, with interpreting.
Two and a half hours
Craft and makers
An hour with a knife sharpener
A third-generation sharpener, six grades of stone, and your own knife if you bring one.
An hour
Walking
The Kiso post road on foot
Tsumago to Magome and beyond, uphill, on stone-paved sections of the old highway.
Three days
Practical
Things worth knowing first
Book a suica card before you need it
You can now add one to a phone wallet. Do it at home; the machines at Kansai have long queues at the wrong moment.
One temple properly beats four temples quickly
Almost every disappointing Kyoto day is an over-scheduled one.
Minshuku have rules, not stars
Dinner at six, bath before dinner, no shoes past the step. They are wonderful if you meet them halfway.
Who plans it
