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We awoke in Narai after another good night's sleep (sleeping doesn't seem to be a problem on this tour, as we are normally exhausted at the end of the day), the group got back together for a Japanese style breakfast. Once breakfast was over, we headed out for a quick tour of the Narai area.
Narai is a "Post Town" on the old route from Kyoto to Edo (Tokyo). During the period that Shoguns ruled Japan, the feudal lords were required to come to Edo once every two years to pay respects to the Shogun. The Nakasendo trail was one of the two routes that they could take from Kyoto, and the post towns along the way were places for trading and for spending the night. Narai is one of the best examples of the post town, and one of the towns in which people still live and work. Mari (our guide) took us around the town, showing us some of the highlights, like the drum bridge, the temple and shrine at the end of the town (there is also one at the beginning of the town), and some of the interesting architectural features of the town buildings. After the little tour, we had some free time to browse the local shops, which feature lacquer wear, wonderful woodwork (mostly of the local cypress wood), and lots of other little Japanese items. We bought a bunch of different chopsticks and two small Sake glasses.
The highlight of the Narai stay happened in one of the small shops along the road. As we entered to browse the wares, we noticed that Mari was sitting down talking with the lady who owned the shop. As Mari got up, the owner asked us to sit down at a small table area that was to one side and brought us out some wonderful cherry blossom tea. There was an older gentleman sitting there as well, who was painting small pictures and calligraphy and doing a very nice job of it despite having a significant muscle tic of some sort. He painted 3 works while we were there and insisted that we take all three. Our favourite one is a piece that depicts 4 of the Buddhist elements (sky, wind, fire & earth). Hopefully we can get it home flat enough that we can frame it.
After Narai, we heading down and hopped on the train to take us to Tsumago for lunch and another small tour. Lunch was excellent, with Kent having the hot udon soup with Shrimp Tempura and Christine having Shrimp Tempura with rice. We also tried the specialty of the restaurant, which was Mochi rice mashed, mixed with miso, put on a stick and then grilled. It was quite good.
When lunch was over, we had a quick tour of the Tsumago (also a post town), and then 7 of the group members were off on a 7.7km hike from Tsumago to Magome along the Nakasendo Trail. We had only gone about 5 minutes down the trail when it started pouring rain. We huddled under a tree to get our coats and umbrellas up and then found a small lean-to shelter to stay under for a few minutes while the worst of the storm passed. About halfway along the trail, we were able to take in a beautiful set of 2 waterfalls. They are called the Odakimedaki waterfalls, which means Male and Female waterfalls in English, and both were running very full after all the rain that has fallen in the last little while. Apparently, this year there has been much more rainfall than usual for the rainy season, which is just about to end. It was well worth the very short detour off the main trail to see them. The trail was quite rough in some spots, and very steep in others, but we finally made it to the Magome pass, which is the summit of the route from Tsumago to Magome. It was all downhill from there, and while keeping a sharp eye out for the bears which had been spotted nearby today, we made it into Magome when Mari and one of the other tour participants awaited us at the Minshuku.
The Minshuku was much like last night, and the dinner was the first to feature some chicken alongside the fish and vegetables.
After dinner, the owner of the Minshuku taught us a Japanese folk song and dance. It was quite humorous to watch the group (both of us included) attempt to do the dance. According to the owner and our guide we were quite good as a group and the owner said several times how much fun he had had with us. It was a nice end to the day as we posted some blog entries and headed to bed to prepare for tomorrow.
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Mom/Dodren The waterfall looks absolutely beautiful! What an adventure....bears, rain....you must have been tired after that hike! I hope you got some pictures of everyone doing that Japanese dance:-) Those sketchings/drawings will be beautiful in your home...what a wonderful memento.Can't wait for more.Love you xxoo