07-06-09 The old trail
Posted in Trip North on 07/25/2009 07:23 pm by ScottIt rained pretty hard last night. So hard that it actually woke us up several times. We were both pretty tired this morning, so we were lucky that the rest area we were camping in had a vending machine with coffee for 80yen.
We walked pretty far today, making it all the way to Hikone. It was a nice walk, and we were very fortunate with the weather. The report called for rain all day, but we somehow managed to walk between storms and were lucky enough to miss almost all the rain. I even got a little more sun burned to add to my already potent farmers tan.
We did our best to walk off the highway as much as possible, as the constant traffic gives us both headaches. It was nice to take a mental break and walk through the rice patties, watching the crows hunting for bugs and the frogs hopping around everywhere.
There was a sad/interesting shrine along the way. At some point in history, it was a shrine in the middle of the countryside. Now it has a Shinkansen track going right through the middle of the main path.
A couple of the towns we walked through still have the Nakasendo marked. It was a nice assurance to see signs marking the old path. It reminded me of the signs in Oregon for the Oregon trail, and how Oregonians barely notice them. I am sure that the locals don’t even notice the Nakasendo markers, but they were sure a welcome sight for us!
After three days of walking in high humidity, we grabbed a hotel for the night. Tomorrow we are going to check out Hikone castle before starting through the mountains towards Gifu. I set two targets, either camp by the river in Semegai or at a shrine in Kashiwabara.