07-04-09 Nakasendo begins!
Posted in Trip North on 07/25/2009 09:22 am by ScottMy foot is back to 100%, and we are ready to start walking again. It’s been a long time. The sightseeing was fun, but we’re ready to move on.
Today was rather uneventful, which was actually kind of nice. We began the first leg of the Nakasendo, but there wasn’t a whole lot to see. We crossed the first “checkpoint”, Sanjo-ohashi bridge, then headed east on route 1.
As we walk, I am trying to imagine what it might have been like for someone back in the Edo period. Their first encounter once leaving the city is to climb a small mountain range. Welcome to the trail! I wonder if anyone gave up right away.
I can totally see how people would hire body guards. Walking 550km is a daunting task. In those first few miles, you think to yourself, “Wow, we are going to walk through the wilderness for a month?!” Heading into the woods for a month would be scary especially knowing that bandits might lurk in the darkness. Good thing for us, modern Japan is safe!
Wikipedia has a nice entry on the Nakasendo, with a list of all the post towns and the modern equivalent. It also lists what highways follow the old trail. So it looks like we will be on route 1, then route 8, before turning east to head into Gifu.
Tonight we set up camp in a wooded park. I’m not sure what town we are in, but we are between the Otsu and Kusatsu checkpoints.
Happy 4th of July! Celebrate the birth of our nation by blowing up a small piece of it!