7 April.
Wow, what a busy place. Our first challenge on arrival in Nagoya was taking the train from the airport to the city of Nagoya to find our hotel with our new friends Mark and Kerryn. Fortunately there are signs in English so we did manage to get to the city without too much trouble! However we arrived the same day as Formula 1 was about to take place and the city was heaving with people, and as you can see there was even a car on display with a picture of our own Daniel Riccardo. Mark having the surname of Hands, saw it opportune to model in front of this window display.
The city of Nagoya is akin to a concrete jungle.We went next door to the train station where there was multi stories with small restaurants on each level. We managed to find a small restaurant that would suit us all. Quite an experience.
8 April is the day we meet our group walking the Nakasendo Way. Again we managed to take the train from Nagoya to Mitake without an international incident! There are display boards in Japanese and English that show the departure time, destination and the number of carriages on the train. You have to follow the colour of your train line and queue up on your coloured line.
After our briefing in Mitake we commenced the 12km walk (425m elevation gain) through some small villages and back roads before ambling through forest sections. Many relics of the old highway remain, including stone statues of the protective deities for travellers and horses. The path was fairly flat and easy going for the most part despite it pouring with rain.
Our accommodation for our first night was in a very basic ryokan with paper thin walls and very steep staircases. We had shared facilities and were given a time slot to shower. As is Japanese culture, you take your shoes off outside and wear slippers inside. Ronnie and I were supplied with the traditional yukatas to wear for dinner. This was the case in all our accommodation along the way. Our hosts in this accommodation were very welcoming.
The food was very authentic Japanese fare. You would not find this food in a Japanese restaurant in Australia. I found the food very challenging!! Thank goodness for muesli bars!!
And our first night sleeping on traditional futons. Not too bad although the pillows were very lumpy. Thank goodness we took our own small pillows!!!