12 Oct 2015
SIN-NGO -> 馬籠 Magome
TRAIN: NGO -> 金山駅 Kanayama -> 中津川 Nakatsugawa (1hr 45mins)
13:00 Arrive Nakatsugawa 中津川
Did some shopping and bought lunch from the tourist information centre at Nakatsugawa Station. It was chestnut season, so we had Chestnut red bean rice, followed by a special Nakatsugawa Sushi for lunch.
Lots of seasonal chestnut desserts ...
14:20 BUS: 中津川 Nakatsugawa Station -> 馬籠宿 Magome
CHECK-IN:
馬籠茶屋 RYOKAN CHAYA
〒508-0502 馬籠4296, 中津川市
Tel: +81573692038
Got in to Magome late afternoon but with sufficient time to explore the town, let the crowd thin out and watch the sunset over the old post town
First drink of the trip, an excellent unfiltered sake.
13 Oct 2015
Magome 馬籠 -> TSUMAGO 妻籠
After a good breakfast, sent our bags to Tsumago via the Magome Tourist Information Center.
Started the hike from Magome to Tsumago
Taking a break at the resthouse
Pickled ginger flower and ume
Passing by Otaki Falls and O-Tsumago town
Arriving in Tsumago
CHECK-IN:
下嵯峨屋 RYOKAN SHIMOSAGAYA
〒399-5302 長野県木曽郡, 南木曽町吾妻寺下805-1
Tel: +81 0264-573124
Dinner@下嵯峨屋
A taste of the local delicacy ... seasoned grasshoppers
14 Oct 2015
Tsumago -> 奈良井 NARAI
09:14 BUS from Tsumago 妻籠 -> Nagiso Station 南木曽 (10 mins) to connected with the 10:xx train.
While waiting for the connecting train at Nagiso 南木曽, we took a quick side trip to view the 桃介橋 (Momosuke Bridge), one of the longest wooden suspension bridge in Japan
TRAIN: Nagiso 南木曽 -> NARAI 奈良井 (60 mins) [ＪＲ]中央本線
The orginal plan was to alight at Yabuhara 藪原, hike the Torii pass to Narai-juku (Estimated 3 hours). Unfortunately, we could not figure out the logistics for our luggage and decide to take the train to Narai directly and just explore the area around Narai
The woodware that Kiso is famous for ...
CHECK-IN:
民宿しまだ MINSHUKU SHIMADA
長野県塩尻市奈良井600
Tel：0264-34-2678
This does look exactly like it appears in japanese taiga movies
15 Oct 2015
Narai -> MATSUMOTO
09:26 TRAIN: Narai -> Matsumoto (60mins 10 stations)
Matsumoto Castle
Navigating the 61 degrees stairs of Matsumoto Castle
CHECK-IN:
HOTEL MOR_SCHEIN ホテル・モルシャン
〒390-0811
長野県松本市中央1-2-5
Tel : 0263-32-0031
If there is only 1 reason to come to Matsumoto ... this has to be it ! It's now my benchmark of what Yakitori should be! A hole-in-the-wall type of shop with maybe about 16 seats serving the most fantastic grilled chicken ever !
The master at work ...
Tori Wasa aka Chicken Sashimi. As soon as you overcome the idea of eating raw chicken, you will definitely order a 2nd helping like we did.
