Kyoto and the Nakasendo · Japan
The Nakasendo on Foot
Eleven days from Kyoto into the Kiso Valley, walking the old road
The shape of it
Three days in Kyoto, then the surviving stretch of the inland post road through cedar forest and wooden post towns, walked uphill.
The Nakasendo was the inland highway between Kyoto and Edo, and a real section of it survives through the Kiso Valley: stone paving, cedar, bear bells on posts, and post towns that have kept their frontages because the railway went elsewhere.
You walk five days of it, four to six hours each, staying in minshuku where dinner is at six and the bath comes before it. Your bag goes ahead in a van, so you carry a day pack and nothing else.
We walk north to south, uphill, which almost nobody does. It is an hour longer each day and considerably better: you climb into the forest rather than out of it, and you arrive with the valley opening behind you.
- Length
- 11 days, 10 nights
- From
- €5,200 per person
- Best months
- Late April to early June, and mid-October to late November
- Season
- Spring, Autumn
- Format
- Small group
- Party
- Maximum ten travellers
- Pace
- Four to six hours' walking on five days, with bags moved ahead
- Travel styles
- Walking and trails, Culture and craft
Per person sharing, in a group of eight to ten. Minshuku rooms are shared-bathroom by nature. Dates and prices shown are indicative demo content. Confirm everything with your own operations before publishing.
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The itinerary
Written as it would actually run. Select a day to see where you are, what you are doing and where you sleep.
Days 1-3
Kyoto first
Three nights in the city before any walking: the eastern temples early, one workshop appointment, and a day to adjust to the time difference on foot rather than in a hotel room.
- Nanzen-ji at opening
- The obi workshop in Nishijin
- A long walk along the canal path
- Night
- Machiya Ogawa
The country you travel through
Where you sleep
The places we use on this trip
What is included
- Ten nights, including four in family minshuku with dinner and breakfast
- Bag transfer on every walking day
- All rail travel and seat reservations within Japan
- A walking leader on every stage
- Route notes, maps and an emergency number that reaches a person
What is not
- International flights
- Lunches on walking days, which you buy along the way
- Travel insurance, which we require for this journey
Who plans this journey
Sho Nakamura
Japan · planning since 2014
Sho grew up in Nishijin, the weaving district, and spent six years working for a textile wholesaler before joining us. The four workshop appointments on the Kyoto journeys are his relationships, built one at a time.
He walks the Kiso section of the Nakasendo twice a year and revises the notes every time. He also books the trains, which sounds dull and is the difference between a good week and a fraught one.
Known for: Talking travellers out of a fifth temple and into a second visit to the one they liked.
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