So, this was a day that didn’t turn out quite right, due to some personal things and my toes being a hot mess. It’s worth noting that SINCE this date, just the other day both of my pinky toenails fell off. There are little tiny new nails growing in, but on the night in Tsumago, I thought, man, I’m going to lose those nails. And then I didn’t, so I thought, ok, dodged that bullet, and then the other day I looked at my right little toenail and it looked weird, and I realized it was totally bent upwards, and I didn’t even feel it. So yeah!

Previous posts. This is ridiculous, right, that I can’t manage to do more than one day at a time for this thing? We’ll see how things go in the future, but until then: Day 4!!

Me at breakfast. It was very nice and as you can see, Japanese.

The hike: Tsumago to Nojiri

• Distance: 12 miles or 19 km
• Elevation gain: 625 m
• Elevation Loss: 520 m

It was still raining at breakfast, another thing that held me back from wanting to hike. We technically weren’t in Tsumago, but were in a nearby hamlet called Otsumago. We could have walked to Tsumago, well some of us, but the Australians staying at the same Inn had booked a cab, and we fit in, so we rode along.

Tsumago was very nice! It’s an old, traditional town. At one point, hardly anybody lived there and nobody bothered to tear down the old houses, so when tourism came back, it was still there, ready to be visited by Japanese people from the cities, and then by international tourists. We were there early, in the rain, before anything other than coffee shops had opened, so that was nice.

Louie and I had a cup of coffee together and then he headed out, to meet up at the next hotel. My plan was to slowly explore Tsumago, then catch a bus to Nagiso. From Nagiso I would catch a train to Kiso Fukushima for the night. Louie would hike to Nojiri and then catch a train to Kiso Fukushima.

I enjoyed visiting Tsumago, and managed to get around okay. I bought a few small souvenirs, and then went to catch the bus to Nagiso. It was an easy and uneventful bus ride, and then hilariously I saw Louie again in Nagiso! I guess it was an easy enough walk. We both went to a grocery store together to get lunch for him, and a snack for me, and then said goodbye again.

Louie sent this, with a bust of Beethoven.

Another picture from Louie. The rain made everything so lush and green!

There weren’t many trains each day so I bought tickets for one that left shortly at noon. I didn’t want to walk anymore so I sat in the train station and read for awhile until it was time to go to the platform. At one point Google Maps told me my train was canceled, but it turned out that incorrect and I got on the train as scheduled.

I arrived in Kiso Fukushima and was quite hungry, so I wanted something to eat first. I had a little trouble finding something that looked good and ended up first having only a cup of coffee at a cafe (there was great difficulty communicating) and then I found a bakery and just bought a few things. My next step was to find a shoe store and find something new.

This was a grand adventure, as I spoke no Japanese and the woman who owned the shoe store spoke no English, but with hand gestures and google translate, I managed to find one pair of slides that fit well enough to shuffle around without killing my toes. It was a great day!

There was a public foot bath in the middle of town and I thought I’d try that next: I had time to kill before hotel check-in, but I still didn’t want to walk too much, so I was just doing light sightseeing in a fairly small town, though bigger than some we had stayed in.

Louie had thought he might get to Nojiri Station in time for an earlier train, but instead he would have to wait until the 5:26 train. He texted here and there just to make sure I was okay, and of course I hoped he wouldn’t be attacked by a bear.

I visited the public library and had another coffee in the cafe there and sat and read until it was time to check into the hotel.

Tonight we were staying at a place called Onyado Tsutaya. It said it was very old, but it had been renovated and was a very modern “old” hotel. It was nice!

I unpacked and then went to the onsen. I had it all to myself, and there was an outdoor part, which was amazing. I was poking around the hotel more and I heard from Louie that his train had been canceled, completely! He was absolutely stressing out about what to do, so I left a message with Really Rural Japan for help, and he was trying to get a cab with some other people who were there with him. It was tricky. I also tried to get the hotel to help, but again, language problems.

Louie thought he might have a cab lined up, and I ran into the people we had met the night before, so I sat in the hotel lobby bar with them and chatted while waiting on him to get settled. Finally he said he was in the cab with some others on his way, and then I had also heard from Really Rural Japan by then, but I told them it was settled. He arrived just before dinner and was exhilarated from the hike and the experience: though I missed hiking with him, I was thrilled he had had a wonderful day exploring and not bogged down by me.

Dinner time: it was absolutely cheesy and fun. The hotel leaned into the tourist experience and our dinner was called “A Shogun Dinner.”

We were encouraged to wear the Yukatas, so we did. I appreciated that there was a variety of sizes and colors to choose from.

Yes, there was a short movie.

And there was food in a helmet.

But the service and hospitality was top notch, and we had a huge meal with a wide variety of food. It wasn’t my favorite meal, nor was it the most traditional, some stuff was definitely made a bit MORE for western tastes, for instance, sweeter tasting. But it was cheesy and fun, and overall very good.

Various foods. I mean, I ate it all. I was hungry as I hadn’t even really had a proper lunch.

Dinner took awhile, and then Louie and I took a little walk around town (I wore my slides). I wanted him to see the foot bath!

Outside of the hotel.

After that, we went back to relax. Kiso looked like a cool place, and there were other restaurants and people out walking about. Maybe there was even more going on the evening than there had been in the afternoon, ha! But we needed to get some rest, and I hadn’t slept well the night before so I was particularly exhauted.

The next day would be our last day of walking, and it was a shorter day. I hoped to walk it after giving my feet a rest! Stay tuned to see what happens!