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Nakasendo: From Kyoto to Tokyo in 19 Days A 540km walk through the Japan most travellers never see

Long before the Shinkansen, there was the Nakasendo — the "road through the central mountains," one of five great highways built to connect Edo-period Japan. For 19 days in early spring, we walked all 534km of it, from Kyoto's Sanjo Ohashi bridge to Nihonbashi in the heart of Tokyo, through 69 historic post towns that most visitors to Japan will never hear of, let alone see.

This is the book we wished existed before we went: a day-by-day account of the whole route, written as it happened. The stone-paved mountain passes of the Kiso Valley, the vintage Showa-era cafés, the retired demons and mountain shrines, the taxi we nearly missed, the bear bells we searched three towns to find, the wrong turns, the right ones, and the ryokan owners who fed us far more than we'd paid for.

Each day includes everything you'd need to plan it yourself: the distance, walking time, weather, post towns, and downloadable GPX tracks, plus the full story of what that day was really like. Along the way, we've folded in practical details that are genuinely hard to find in English. How rural bus and community taxi systems work, what to pack for a 19-day hike, onsen etiquette, how to budget for a trip this length, and the phrases you'll actually need in a Nakasendo guesthouse. We've also put together 3- or 7-day variants so you can tailor the trip to your needs.

Whether you're planning to walk it yourself, dreaming about it, or want to know what's out there between Japan's two most famous cities, this is the guide — and the story — we didn't have, and think you should.

• The complete 19-day route from Kyoto to Tokyo, told day by day exactly as it happened: not a summary, the actual journal.
• A downloadable GPX track for every day so that you can follow the exact route on your own watch or phone.
• Practical planning most English-language sources don't cover: rural buses and community taxis, onsen etiquette, a Nakasendo phrasebook, and a realistic budget breakdown.
• Hand-picked accommodation notes for every stop, from where we stayed to where we wish we had.
• A packing list built from actually doing it — including the gear that mattered and the gear we didn't need.
• Written by a native Japanese speaker, Hitomi's Japanese fluency and cultural background turn roadside markers, shrine folklore, and small-town history into stories, not just captions.

Download your free preview of our Nakasendo field guide below