Day 7: Tsumago to Magome

Day 7:  Tsumago  to Magome

QOTD:  Should we stop for another coffee?

Hiking Haiku

Stars so abundant

Ursa, Lyra, and Vega

Just one of many.

 

Weather:  60s, on uphills felt like low 70s

Pics:  Breakfast (THB eats his soft boiled egg today), the inn, Tsumago, ice coffee with chocolate ($4), bun man, pay phone at inn, Fusao and proprietress, Nakasendo, buns for lunch up closer and personal, hikers and waterfalls, free tea house, Nakasendo, tea bushes, potato jerky, ice coffee (no chocolate, $4), Magome shots, a snake, plastic bottle scarecrow, caterpillar, Magome, inn, last bun of the day, our room at the inn, bathing room, dinner, THB modeling Japanese jacket

Dept of clarification: the level of guest houses THB and DB are staying in is called a minshuku, not minshu (as a loyal follower corrected for THB)

For the hiking portion of the trip, this is the 4th of 5 minshuku’s we’re staying in, and one night THB gets a western style hotel and bed. There is a variety of customs related to shoes and chairs.

Shoes: All require THB to leave his shoes at the door, never to touch the raised levels of the inn. Some require slippers be used everywhere, some only in bathrooms (all require you to switch to slippers that are just used in bathrooms, which are exiled and never to leave). There is no consistency between inns, so as we switch from one to another nightly, THB cannot remember if this is a place where you leave slippers in hallway or not.  (Since rooms don’t have numbers on them, THB is forced to remember which sliding door leads to his bags and futons.)  THB wrote a long “observation” about shoes in a posting from his prior trip to Japan and if he is really lazy he will go back and find it and cut and paste in a late posting of this trip. If he is supremely lazy, this is the last you’ll hear of it on this trip (unless he gets It wrong and thus has to use his Dept of Clarification section again).

And, like shoes, it appears chairs (and sofas) are also at the whims of the innkeepers. At one place, we actually had breakfast at regular western tables (and, fortunately, with western chairs, or we would have been eating with very straight backs on our knees). All dinners have been served at low tables requiring THB to contort into various leg positions, including fully extended under the table (at one inn, they brought us a cushioned seat and back, which helped a bit). Not to worry, THB has left very few calories behind on the table…very few! Two of the inns so far had western chairs and tables in common areas, only one of the two had them outside THB’s bedroom and thus easily accessible (the other was down a flight of narrow stairs, another minshuku specialty). Tonight: no chairs, no sofas, no western tables or chairs, only low tables (and there is always a low table in the bedrooms).

Today, fortunately after yesterday’s 20+ day, was very easy in that it was a lot shorter, only 7 miles, only a few steep parts with much level and downhill, and THB got to take lots of breaks, including two for iced coffee, one for tea, one for lunch (in front of a spectacular waterfall), and several for taking in the long vistas. It was cool today, little of the intensity of the direct sun, and breezy most of the second half of the hike. Perfect.

We strolled through Tsumago, a post town that has kept the “old style” like Narai (though not quite as nice), bought buns for lunch (terrific!! see pics,$10 for 6 different varieties), toured the museum in a recreated inn of the 1600s, and went back to pick up our backpacks (DB goes packless again today, we’re meeting our suitcases in the next town). The proprietress (see pic) treats us to a drink out of the vending machine and THB goes for a cold green tea.

Along the way, we have lunch and a photo op in front of the waterfall, free tea (hot) at a community run rest stop (see pic of constantly stoked fire), buy and try dried potatoes (see pic…acquired taste, needed salt), and saw many day-trippers. It’s easy to stay in either Tsumage or Magome and walk one way (or round trip) and take the train back. On our prior 20+ day, we saw exactly two people doing the hike, a couple most likely from Australia.

Tonight for dinner (voted the best so far of the minshukus): grasshopper, boar, salmon sashimi, small salt-coated fish, veggie tempura, tofu with sesame sauce, spinach, edamame and lotus root, horsetail, rice grown by the innkeeper on a nearby plot, miso, and shared beer for THB and sake for DB.

After dinner (yes, THB has an after dinner report that is not about the attempt to fall asleep on futons, though tonight THB is sleeping on three futons and will not be able to feel the floor), THB and Fusao go out (see last pic for THB in elegant night wear) to look at the stars. We are a long way from the big city lights here in Magome and even the Milky Way is faintly visible. If THB gets up his courage, maybe he will wander out at 3am…highly doubtful because THB has heard that wild bears roam the streets late at night...at least, that's how Fusao translated the signs we see everywhere.