Magome - Tsumago trail

My second trip with the Chubu International Hiking Club (CHIC) after visiting Iwayadou park, was to the Magome-Tsumago trail.

This trail is part of the Nakasendō (中山道 means centre-mountain-road, check the Kanjis in the picture above) route, which was one of the five main routes of the Edo period. It connected Tokyo (known as Edo in the past) to Kyoto.

From Nagoya station, we took the JR Chuo line and got off at Nakatsugawa station. From there we took a bus to Magome, where we started the route to Tsumago. For coming back, we took a bus to JR Nagiso station and then a train back to Nagoya.

We started the route by tasting some delicious goheimochi (五平餅). It is made of rice and grilled with a tasty sauce based on soy sauce and walnut.

From Magome we could see the Mt. Ena (恵那山). Maybe another hike.. :)

During the trail we could already see the first colored leaves indicating the Autumn. In Japan, this season is very popular and the phenomenon is known as kouyou (紅葉).

The trail crosses a very rural Japan. People living a quiet live, agriculture and even fish crops.

Along the trail, you can see lots of different versions of pottery statues of Tanuki.

There are also lots of waterwheels (suisha 水車 in Japanese).

The trail goes through a beautiful natural environment. There were also some waterfalls which were called Man-Waterfall (男の滝) and Woman-Waterfall (女の滝), although I could not figure out the reason hehe.

Tsumago, the end of the trail, was a very nice village with traditional houses that hosted souvenir shops. Although it is quite a touristic place I think it was worth walking through its main streets.

Finally, we went to eat Soba. I had Bukkake Tororo Soba, which had a quail egg (in Japanese uzura).

Note: sorry for the bad quality of the pics, I forgot the camera and took them with my mobile phone :)