From Magome to Tsumago – Following the footsteps of the samurai

We left Tokyo quite early in the day to start our Japan tour. Once again, we hung around for a while in Tokyo station to check out all the different options for our lunch. The bento boxes were all pretty and colourful and the choice seemed impossible: takoyaki, sushi or katsudon, all these in beautiful bento boxes which for some of them, were the shape of the shinkansen. Anyway, we wanted to buy absolutely EVERYTHING. The clock was ticking amazingly fast and we had to hurry up, so we would not miss the Shinkansen, aka the bullet train.

The journey to Magome was long. After the Shinkansen and a small suburbian train, we arrived in the cold rain, in the middle of whoop whoop where we couldn’t see a soul. We were the only individuals in this small village, to wait for a bus that would take us to Magome. This same bus zigzagged at high speed, on a winding pitch-black mountain road, and we arrived at 5:00pm. We soon realised that absolutely EVERYTHING was closed. At this moment, we feared for our lives, thinking about our poor little stomachs that would have to stay empty for the night.

At the ryokan (one of the rare open establishments), our host explained that during low season, all shops close their doors at around 3pm and that we could forget our well-desired hot bowl of ramen. It surely was because of our baffled faces and our growling stomachs that pushed our host to cook a little something for us. We’re saved! We didn’t know it at the time but we had one of the best meals of our trip, all dressed up with our yukatas (some kind of a kimono-pyjama) in front of some silly Japanese tv show : the challenge was to eat an entire bowl of ramen with a broth 99% made of chilli – super crazy Japanese! That night, we drooled like babies on our first futon, all spongy and soft.

On the next morning, after a good night’s sleep and on an empty stomach, we started to tackle the 8km trek Magome-Tsumago, under the rain. The lady from the ryokan totally lied to us as absolutely everything was still closed, haha! We were then super happy that we hung around for a while in Tokyo station the day before and bought these cute, small biscuits in cloud shapes (however, please note the nutriment value : zero)! The route between Magome and Tsumago is part of an ancient route linking Kyoto, the imperial capital of Japan’s Edo period to Tokyo, the modern capital. It was a very popular route for trading but even more popular when the capital moved to Tokyo. These two villages were two of the numerous ‘post towns’, used as rest towns. In this little village, there are a lot of vestiges and it was easy to imagine what Magome looked like during the Edo period. The beautiful traditional houses were well preserved, as well as the pretty water mill and the paved road which went through the village.

Our bags were dead heavy but the walk was quite easy between these two towns. In between, a forest covered by a thick mist, looked mystical, almost haunted. It was certainly inhabited by wild bears, according to all the signs and huge bells we had to ring every 500m to scare them away. Derrick, his wooden stick in his hands, was ready if we were unlucky to bump into one. A couple of times we crossed some tiny village of 10 houses only. The little plus: the most adorable akitas who patiently welcomed us at the entrance of the village, all excited and who escorted us to the exit! We were picked up by different akitas a couple of times!

When we arrived in Tsumago, we were super happy! First of all because the village was not deserted, but mostly because a few shops were open! We then were able to put our bags down and explore. Like Magome, Tsumago kept its authenticity and its ancient charm. No cars or electric cables can be seen in the village. This absence of clues about modernity could possibly transport you back in time. The village kept its original shape. Grannies and grandpas were behind the counters of their little shops and offered top warm welcomes. Starving like never before, we swallowed little handmade pork buns and drank an old fashioned tea, where the tea pot was suspended in the middle of the room, above a wide open chimney. Can’t be any more rustic!

After all these, it was already time for us to continue our journey, onto Kyoto!