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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 540km 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.

This preview includes the following:

The first day of the 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 the first day so that you can follow the exact route on your own watch or phone.
Hand-picked accommodation notes for the first 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.

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The introduction, our GPX and packing guides, and Day 1 in full — 35 pages, free. Add your email and you'll be able to download it straight away in EPUB or PDF, and we'll let you know as each new day is published.

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19 day chapters
21 GPX tracks
19 places to stay
500+ pages
EPUB & PDF

Photos, maps and an elevation profile for every day.

What's in the rest of the book

You have 35 pages. Here's the other 500.

Before you go

7 chapters

The journey

19 days, Kyoto to Tokyo · plus food and local specialities, and the trip overview
Each day also carries the local transport for that stretch — the bus that only runs in the morning, the shared taxi you have to reserve.

Day 1 Sanjo Ohashi, Kyoto → Kusatsu — journal written
Day 2 Kusatsu → Echigawa — journal written
Day 3 Echigawa → Kashiwabara — journal written
Day 4 Kashiwabara → Akasaka — journal written

See all 19 days ▾

Day 5 Akasaka → Kano — journal written
Day 6 Kano → Ota — journal written
Day 7 Ota → Hosokute — journal written
Day 8 Hosokute → Ooi — journal written
Day 9 Ooi → Magome — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 10 Magome → Suhara — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 11 Suhara → Miyanokoshi — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 12 Miyanokoshi → Seba — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 13 Seba → Shimosuwa — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 14 Shimosuwa → Nagakubo — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 15 Nagakubo → Iwamurada — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 16 Iwamurada → Karuizawa — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 17 Karuizawa → Annaka — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 18 Annaka → Honjo — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 19 Honjo → Nihonbashi, Tokyo — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come

Day 1 Sanjo Ohashi, Kyoto → Kusatsu — journal written
Day 2 Kusatsu → Echigawa — journal written
Day 3 Echigawa → Kashiwabara — journal written
Day 4 Kashiwabara → Akasaka — journal written
Day 5 Akasaka → Kano — journal written
Day 6 Kano → Ota — journal written
Day 7 Ota → Hosokute — journal written
Day 8 Hosokute → Ooi — journal written
Day 9 Ooi → Magome — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 10 Magome → Suhara — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 11 Suhara → Miyanokoshi — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 12 Miyanokoshi → Seba — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 13 Seba → Shimosuwa — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 14 Shimosuwa → Nagakubo — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 15 Nagakubo → Iwamurada — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 16 Iwamurada → Karuizawa — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 17 Karuizawa → Annaka — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 18 Annaka → Honjo — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come
Day 19 Honjo → Nihonbashi, Tokyo — route, stay and timings ready, journal to come

Journal written Route, stay and timings ready — journal to come

Every day chapter opens the same way: the route, the distance, the walking time, the weather we had, the post towns and the GPX track, then where we stayed. Days 1–8 carry the full journal; the remaining eleven arrive free as we write them.