During the Edo period (1603-1868), the Nakasendo was one of Japan’s great highways, carrying a constant stream of travellers between the capital and the mountainous interior. This tour follows a surviving stretch of that ancient road on foot, leading from the historic post town of Yabuhara-juku over the Torii Pass to Narai-juku. You walk the very route once travelled by samurai and merchants, along a path that has quietly preserved the atmosphere of centuries past.

The trail climbs gently through serene forests and mountain landscapes, with the ancient Torii Pass marking the threshold between one era and another. As you ascend, the views open onto the Kiso Valley, and the tranquil beauty of old Japan settles around you. The full walk covers roughly 8.6 kilometres, a distance measured less in effort than in the sense of stepping slowly back through time.

The Kiso region is celebrated for its traditional craftsmanship, above all its lustrous Kiso lacquerware and finely made lacquered combs. In Narai-juku, these beautifully crafted pieces are still sold in the same shops that have offered them for generations, an invitation to carry home a small part of Japan’s rich cultural heritage.

Journey’s end is Narai-juku itself, one of the best-preserved post towns along the Nakasendo. Lined with traditional wooden buildings and old merchant houses, it retains its Edo-period charm so completely that daily life here seems barely to have changed. Known as Narai of a Thousand Houses, the town stretches for about a kilometre along the road, its streets made for unhurried wandering past shops, inns, tea houses, and stalls serving local delicacies.