Tsumago and the End of Our Holiday

The last few days of our holiday Jeremy came up from Hiratsuka. We decided to drive to an old town in Nagano Prefecture called Tsumago. This town is one of many old towns that were on the Nakasendo road. This was one of the two ways to travel from Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto in the past. All along the route little towns provided lodging, food and rest to travelers. Tsumago has been so well preserved that it is virtually a living museum now. Rows and rows of wooden Edo period buildings, shops selling local handicrafts and restaurants.

I had a great bowl of homemade soba noodles with tempura mushrooms. We also tried two local sweets. One was served in a little shop around an irori. It was almost like a hot donut with no hole. We all got the walnut filled one. Then we tried gohei-mochi which was sticky rice grilled on a stick with a thick nut paste on it. Both sweets were delicious and warming on a cold, cloudy autumn day.

We hiked for a short bit on the old Nakasendo path where we passed through forests, small villages and waterfalls. A lot of houses had persimmons hanging out to dry.

The next day we took Jeremy to a sake brewery in Youtsu Town, near Kani. The owner is one of my students. He is a 5th generation sake brewer with a 140 year old building. We all bought some sake and had a good time talking to the owner about how sake is made. Damien and I ended up going to an Okinawan restaurant later that night. The food was definitely different from Japanese style food. More tropical and centered around pork. Very delicious!!! We weren’t really sure what we were ordering but it was hard to go wrong. I think our dessert was taro root pie.