Tsumago-juku — Attraction in Nagiso

Famous post town along the Nakasendo road.

ℹ️ Great information center with friendly staff and brochures. Get a stamp for your souvenir book, too!

🎟️ If you're buying a ticket for the bus to Nagiso (the train station), you'll do it at the information center.

🍜 Fewer food options than Magome, so be prepared. I walked through twice, and if you arrive at 3pm or so, there will only be one restaurant open (which is good!). There is also a nice cafe before you get to Tsumago-juku.

🛍️ Like Magome-juku, Tsumago is basically a tourist spot, so the shopping is souvenirs, but not as comprehensive as Magome.

🚍 Most people take a bus in one direction or both. You can take a bus from Nakatsugawa, stop is at the train station. Or, if you walk from Magome, you can take the bus to Nagiso (the closest JR rail train station).

🚶‍♀️If you want a really fun adventure, walk from Nakatsugawa! (And put your bag in a coin locker at the station) It's about 2 hours along the Nakasendo to Magome, and is well signposted.

🚻 Well-marked, clean toilets

🥾 If you're hiking the Nakasendo, I can't recommend it enough! Although the Magome to Tsumago portion is the famous part, there's so much more to it! You can also walk about 45 minutes more to Nagiso and skip the bus.

❗ I've created a public list for recommended Nakasendo spots,...

One of the post towns along the historic Nakasendo trail connecting Tokyo and Kyoto via central Honshu. This is nowadays a popular hiking trail. The whole trail can takes 3 days to complete. A short 8km hike connect Tsumago-juku to another post town, Magome-juku.

The towns: tsumago juku is more well preserved. Though both towns got lots of shops selling merchandise, most of the buildings in Magomejuku is rebuilt. So it feels less authentic.

Hiking : Easy trail along a creek. Well paved road with mild slope. Got lots of public toilets in between and direaction well indicated. There is a tea house in the middle of the trail. The owner is a welcoming old gentleman who offers complimentary tea to hikers and may even sing folk songs to entertain the guests. After the tea house, another uphill path leading to traffic road. There is a store at the exit which sells shaved ice. Then, downward slope along traffic road. Look for sign after 200-300m, enter the trail cross the road. It's 300m away from Magomejuku.

Tips : those not interested in hiking but want to visit the two towns can...

Magome was a wonderful break from the hectic sightseeing in Tokyo. We had an early nights sleep since not much you can do after 7pm and then bright and early we did the 7.6 km hike to tsumago village. The hike was wonderful! The scenery was very unspoiled. It took us 3hrs to complete in a very leisurely pace and 2 resting stops in the tea houses along the way. The route from the direction of magome to tsumago starts with first couple of kms uphill and then it is mostly downhill.

We were there early December, it was cold but no rain and no snow, barely any tourists! We had the path to ourselves.

The first tea house served lovely green tea and several delicious biscuits and the lady running it was extremely kind. It was the perfect stop! The second stop was in a resting place run by a very entertaining and kind man called Mr Suzuki who will graciously serve you warm tea, homemade desserts and plum wine - donations appreciated - and without much encouragement he will sing a...