nakasendo 2024

Day 5: Karuizawa to Yokokawa

As you could see from yesterday’s photos, Karuizawa does not retain much of its traditional post-town scenery but has become popular as a western-style summer resort. The town was catastrophically damaged in the 1783 eruption of Mount Asama, and further affected by repeated fires and famine. When a Canadian missionary, Alexander Shaw, visited in the late 19th century, the nature of Karuizawa reminded him of home and he built his summer house there. Since then, Karuizawa has been famous for its climate, tennis courts and golf courses. Its height above sea level means that it offers respite from the often oppressive heat of the city summers. Karuizawa gained fame in the late 1950s when former Emperor Akihito (at the time the Crown Prince) became engaged – he met the future Empress on a tennis court here. John Lennon and Yoko Ono visited Karuizawa every summer from 1977 until the former’s death. Places which Lennon visited now proudly display his picture.

We started early as today was a 16 km trek. Weather was sunny and cool – perfect walking weather. Our walking instructions did not adequately describe the route, so we had a couple of false starts until finally we tagged onto a small hiking group from New Zealand, whose guide knew the way.

The trail took us up to the Usui-toge pass which connects two prefectures – Nagano and Gunma. It was a gentle ascent and the views from the top were lovely.( And we had to have our half apple as reward for reaching the top)

The gentle descent down went through one of the most beautiful sections of the Nakasendo. Along the way are sites of battles, beautiful forests, and the jagged mountain peaks near Yokohama.

The last part of the descent was quite challenging as it was steep in parts with loose stones to navigate. The trail is under maintenance and a bulldozer romped its way up while we were walking down.

Once we finished the descent, we went through a railway tunnel and then walked along an old railway line.

Finally we reached the end of the Nakasendo trail and celebrated with an appropriate number of photos.

Very pleased to reach Yokohama railway station for our train ride to Tokyo.

Reached Tokyo around 4.30 pm, and after a short rest, we went to dinner under Tokyo station where there are many restaurants and thousands of people.
We had Japanese omelette pancakes, cooked at our table.