There’s something incredibly satisfying about walking the streets of a typically bustling metropolis such as Nagoya in the early morning on a Sunday and being greeted by a distinct lack of human activity. That was just my first reward for waking up at 5:30am to board the Shinano 1 to Nagiso for what turned out to be an incredibly scenic and relaxing few hours spent walking the Nakasendo path traversing the border of Nagano and Gifu.

My second reward was a stunningly gorgeous 1 hour train ride out of the north side of Nagoya and through the southeast of Gifu, ending in the small town of Nagiso, right in the southwest of Nagano prefecture. Since I’d made the 7am train (arriving at 8am in Nagiso), I was able to start the Nakasendo trail without too much trouble from the sun bearing down. There were also very few other tourists on the trail at this time of day and for the first couple of hours, I had the path virtually to myself. Climbing up twisty mountain roads and passing through the occasional small village, this was an absolutely gorgeous way to spend a Sunday morning. The views over the surrounding valleys were genuinely breathtaking and it wasn’t long before I felt incredbily relaxed and fell into a real rhythm with my walking.

Once I reached the town (village?) of Tsumagojuku, things became slightly less tranquil and more tourist centric. Don’t get me wrong, this village and the destination of Magomejuku are gorgeous little slices of rural Japan but it’s seems that their main purpose now, regardless of the history these places are clearly steeped in is to service – primarily western – tourists.

The abundance of other travellers did very little to affect my enjoyment of the remainder of the trail, weaving its way up through through forest paths and eventually leading to the gentle descent down into Magomejuku. The bulk of the tourists I saw were gathered here, wandering the narrow main stret, perusing gift shops and taking photos. I had gotten what I’d came for, a beautiful forest walk and a chance to take some photos in rural Japan. It was time to get the bus to Nakatsugawa and another train back to Nagoya, back home.

As you can see, for these photos I’ve been experimenting with editing in monochrome. It was such a bright day today with the harsh sunlight casting some really striking shadows and with the majority of the colour coming from the greenery and blue sky, it seemed like a good chance to play around more with shadow and contrast so that’s what I’ve gone for. I think my favourite shot and the one that inspired the switch to black and white was the one of the plant in the shaft of sunlight between two small buildings in Tsumagojuku. It caught my eye as I can’t help peeking between buildings in most places to see if there’s anything interesting lurking. In this case, at least for me, I think there was. I also really like the shot I was able to get of the layered concrete waterfall. By cropping in close I thought it kind of resembled something like a strange slice of watery concrete cake but I don’t know, sometimes you stare at these images long enough you begin to forget what you’re even looking at. Anyway, until the next one.

Now listening:
Balled of Sister Sue – Slowdive
Sister, I’ve lost all the feeling,
I’m lost and I’m sold,
I lay down beside you,
Sister, I’m blinded