Magome to Tsumago

Going to bed early also means getting up early. But we can convince the owner of the accommodation that we will have breakfast at 08:00, not at 07:30. Why get up early anyway, the day already announces itself early with a lot of rain. We start after 09:00: first we have to drop off our luggage at the Tourist Information Office to have it transported to Tsumago. We set off in heavy rain - and after 10 minutes it's all over. Aaaah, if only we had had a little more patience. After that, we are pretty spoiled for the whole day with almost rain-free hiking.

Although hiking is too much to say: the path from Magome to Tsumago is just under 8km long and has little altitude. Actually, you could do it all as a little Sunday stroll. But the route is beautiful and always tempts you to take little detours or of course to take photos. We take lots of time and are almost glad that everyone else does too. There are splendid cherry trees in bloom, magnolias in various colors, the river gurgles happily at our side, and every few meters we happily ring the bear bells. That's right, there are bears here and to prevent them from crossing our path, you are supposed to ring the bells loudly. I can hardly imagine that there are bears on these frequently used trails, but better safe than sorry.

After an early lunch (there's nothing else to do) with delicious soba noodles and gohei mochi (warm rice balls with miso nut sauce on skewers), we finally arrive in Tsumago at a very, very slow pace at 13:30. It seems to be a bit more lively here. We stroll through the picturesque village and decide to visit the former ruins of Tsumago Castle, which are about 1km away. A nice extra tour. You can't see any ruins, but you can still see the earthworks of the protective wall and the plateau where the castle once stood.

Afterwards, we go to our wonderful Ryokan Fujioto. We treat ourselves to a bath (man, the water is hot!), put on our yukatas, and at 18:00 there's dinner. We don't want to withhold the courses from you, it was simply a fantastic meal!!!