We left our Minshuku without breakfast to hurry to the Narai Train Station at 8:30 AM. There was only one train leaving at 8:40 AM and the next one was leaving at after 11 AM. Luckily, we got our train and rode it for 1:30 hours to Nagiso. From there, the hiking started.

Check out an interactive Map of the places we visited here. I will update this map as we continue our Journey. This post is about Day 5.

The Nakasendo is the path connecting the post towns and you can "hike" it. Most of the path is paved or has cobblestones on it. There are some steep sections though but nothing that warrants the use of special hiking gear.

After about 45 minutes of hiking, we reached Tsumago-Juku. This Post Town looks a lot like Narai but has a lot more greenery both inside the town and surrounding it. Even though it is Golden Week right now, there were not that many tourists, as you can see yourself in this picture (it was taken at 11:30 AM).

Correction: It totally wasn't golden week as we found out one day later. Golden week started at 3rd of May 2023 and the Post Towns got significantly more crowded.

We had some snacks in Tsumago and continued our hike in the direction of Magome Juku, the last post town along our Journey. Most of the Nakasendo looks exactly like this. Not too hard to hike on, well structured with big signs guiding you along the way.

Other things to note about the Nakasendo:

• There are public toilets every 500 Metres along the Nakasendo! They were clean but none had any soap.
• People live along the hiking trail in beautiful villages/single homes with pretty gardens.
• The scenery changes constantly: from forests to clearings to hills to settlements… It does not get boring at all. There were some parts where we had to hike alongside a road because part of the hiking trail were closed though.
• If you don't want to hike but still want to visit the towns, you can just go by car/bus/train and still see most of the beauty that the Nakasendo has to offer (and be much less sweaty for it).

There is one challenge though: The Nakasendo is in bear territory. Signs are warning you constantly about possible encounters with bears. To keep bears at bay, you should create lots of noises. Luckily, the Nakasendo is equipped with lots of bells that you should ring when passing by to warn the bears about your arrival. At about the halfway point between Tsumago and Magome, there is a tea house which serves free tea. The tea is boiled in this kettle over an open flame. Just after reaching the outskirts of Magome, we found this private garden of a local who invited us to have a look. It was quite chaotic and cluttered but beautiful in its own way. I like this Maple tree in front of the small pond (which had chairs and tables in it for some reason). There was a lookout point just before entering the town that is Magome Juku. In the background, you can see some of the lower Japanese Alps. In Magome Juku (but also along the whole Nakasendo), there were a lot of beautiful flowers that were just in bloom here. Compared to Tokyo, where Spring is almost over, the colder climate of the Japanese Alps makes for a later bloom of flowers, comparable to the time they bloom in northern Germany. After arriving in Magome, we checked into our hotel, got some rest and then explored the town more. We found a shop which sells this type of Mochi called Gohei Mochi (there are many shops like this on the Nakasendo but this is one of them). These are delicious. Compared to other types of Mochi, which are completely smooth inside, this type of mochi has some rice particles still left intact. Thus it has a less doughy type of texture. The sauce was the king of the show and tastes sweet and savory at the same time, similar to Dango. Also similar to dango, Gohei Mochi is grilled over an open flame. After 6 PM, most of the people left Magome Juku and we could take some picture like that. Tough I think this is the last picture of post town for this journey.

In summary:
It was a pretty uneventful day. We hiked a lot, had lots of snacks along the way and saw amazingly beautiful scenery. Sadly, this beauty does not translate that well into pictures (or I am just a bad photographer) but I am not so happy with the pictures I got from today. As beautiful as the post towns are, there are only so many pictures you can take of them without getting bored.