Roving Japan

Day 84 Photoset

Great day today. We woke up bright and early from our camp behind the rest station and started heading up the 19 towards the post town of Narai. I knew from reading the blog of another guy who walked this route that Narai is on the other side of the Torii Toge Pass. I guess that back in the day, this pass was one of the more difficult passes, but that it’s not too bad now. Just a couple of hours or so to walk over. So with that intelligence in hand, we started out our day knowing that around noon we would be going over a mountain, but then we could relax and camp in Narai.

On the way to the pass, we walked through more beautiful scenery. Kiso valley really is amazing. I really like it here.

We passed a place that is famous for a samurai who was raised there. We walked to the museum and took some photos, but we didn’t have time to go in if we wanted to get over the pass in a timely manner.

The entrance to the Torii Toge Pass begins in the town of Yabuhara. We were super hungry when we got there, so we wanted to grab some lunch before heading into the woods. Unfortunately there weren’t a lot of options. We ended up being sent to a little soba noodle restaurant at the edge of town. This place was FANCY. It was really nice inside, but it was also really expensive. The Soba was like $10, and while it might have been high quality, it wasn’t nearly enough to get us full. We also ordered some “fried miso” because we had never heard of such a thing. It was a little too artsy for us. We were HUNGRY and the “fried miso” was $3 for about 1 bites worth. I recommend this place if you’re sightseeing, but not if you’re trying to get energy for a mountain pass. The chef and staff were really nice to us though. They gave us some candies and maps as we left.

The Torii Toge Pass itself is really cool. This stretch of the nakasendo is preserved, so we got to hike on the old stones almost the entire way over.

I just wish the weather had cooperated with us. As we started up the road, the clouds started to move in and it began to rain. The higher we got, the harder it rained. We were lucky that this path was well maintained and wasn’t too steep or hazardous. Hiking while carrying an umbrella is kind of a pain, but its way too hot to put on rain gear.

At the top of the pass, I let out a little fan fare, “Da da-da da, da, DA!!!!!”, then *BOOM* the thunder hit.

We had made it to the top of the mountain right as the thunderstorm hit the mountain. Great!

With thunder and lighting happening in the clouds around us, we took shelter under the awning of the shrine that is at the summit of the pass. We tried to get inside the building, but all the doors were locked.

Cell service wasn’t good, but I managed to get a weak 3g signal that let me google some basic thunderstorm safety as a refresher. I guess you are ok if you’re in an area with lots of trees of uniform height, but it’s not good to be at the top of mountains. We decided that when we hadn’t heard the thunder for a few minutes, we should just head down quickly, so we did.

Once on our way down, the rain turned into a drizzle and the thunder stopped. We could finally enjoy the scenery a little more.

The nakasendo descends directly into the main street of Narai, and it was really cool. Narai is very well preserved, but unlike Tsumago or Magome, Narai is still a working city with quite a few residents and a train station.

While at the summit we ate almost all our snacks, so our first order of business was getting some food. We found a little place and ordered whatever had the most volume. We got an awesome clay pot filled with veggies, meat and rice. It was delicious and we were finally full! The nice owner also hooked us up with some coffee. We talked with him a bit about our trip and that we just went over the pass. He gave us some coupons for Narai that included free admission to one of the houses/museums and a free pass to the local Onsen! Woohoo! A bath!

He also told us that we could camp in the park next to the river. With our camping location nailed down, we took off to explore the town and to grab our free bath.

The Narai onsen is also a hotel, and today it was host to a girls junior highschool table tennis camp. So while I got to enjoy the mens bath in peace. Risa was thrown into the middle of a teenage soap opera.

In Japan, the “Sempai” system is incredibly important. If someone is older than you they are your sempai, you have to show them the proper respect. If you are someones sempai, you can generally assume a superior attitude. So imagine this system in the hands of girls between the ages of 13-15. Girls set up complicated social systems on their own, the sempai system just adds fuel to the fire.

When she first entered the bath, Risa was alone. But as she got dressed and prepared to leave, she got to witness a bizaar social drama that began when two 2nd year girls came in to quickly grab a hair drier and leave. Shortly after the 2nd years had left, three 1st years came in and started undressing for the bath. This, of course, set them off on how embarrassed they were to be getting undressed in front of eachother. They didn’t seem to care about Risa.

One of the 1st years remembered that she left something in her room, so she got dressed and left to grab it. As soon as she left, the two 2nd years, who are “sempai” to the 1st years, returned with the hair drier. The two 1st years were still getting undressed and were horrified that these two sempai had walked in to see them naked! When their friend returned, they told her all about the shocking experience of the sempai walking in on them. Meanwhile, Risa is still right there, getting dressed. I guess it’s only embarrassing if they know you.

The 3 1st years finally got in the bath, and were soon joined by another group of 3 1st years. This left Risa alone to dry her hair in peace. It wasn’t long, however, before group of 5 sempai showed up looking for a friends face wash. They searched in the dressing room at first, but then they made the decision to search the bathing area while fully clothed. The 1st years were HORRIFIED to have five sempai, fully clothed, walk in on them. These poor girls had to suffer the humiliation of having a pack of sempai roam around looking for the face wash while they sat naked in the bath, trying to keep their dignity. The five sempai eventually found the face wash and left, but as they left a new group of 1st years showed up and announced that it was time for the girls in the bath to get out. The shell shocked 1st years in the bath had barely enough time to clean themselves between the groups of sempai walking in on them. Risa felt bad, but also relieved that her hair was finally dry and she could escape.

After the onsen, we walked through Narai and enjoyed the sight of the city at night with the lights turned on. We had a lot of fun walking the empty streets before finally heading to the park to set up camp.

We’re now in the corner of the park, camping under a tree. Risa took a nice photo of the bridge that crosses the river next to the park.