Chubu, Japan · Town / small city, Mountain
The best-preserved of the Kiso Valley's old post towns on the Nakasendo road: a kilometre of two-story wooden houses with deep eaves and latticed windows, with Kiso lacquerware workshops still active.
Train — Local JR Chuo Line train from Matsumoto, about 45-55 minutes with no transfers, ¥590; Narai Station itself sits right by the historic district, no bus needed.
A kilometre of two-story wooden houses with deep eaves, latticed windows, and water channels — the best-preserved of the Kiso Valley's post towns on the old Nakasendo road.
Narai was the richest of the sixty-nine post towns of the Nakasendo, known as Narai of a thousand houses; sleeping in one of its timber inns means seeing the street completely empty at dusk and at dawn.
Half an hour away on foot: some 50 working lacquer workshops on a single street, far more artisan and less touristy than Narai itself.
Six kilometres of the original Nakasendo roadway between Yabuhara and Narai, with cobbled stretches and a shrine dedicated to Mount Ontake at the top of the pass.
The two crafts of the valley: the carved combs sold to travellers and the containers of bent hinoki cypress wood, made without a single nail.
Rice skewers with walnut and miso sauce grilled over the fire, mountain soba and the sake of the valley's breweries.
Narai is the birthplace of Kiso shikki lacquerware: workshops still hand-produce bowls, trays, and lacquered wooden combs.
Twenty minutes away by train: one of the four great checkpoints of feudal Japan, the residence of the lords of the valley and a zen garden looking over the river.
On the first weekend of June the Kiso lacquer fair coincides with a parade in Edo-period costume along the main street.
The house of a boxwood comb merchant, the product that made the village rich; it is toured inside, with its storehouse and its courtyard.
The house where the records of horses, porters and travellers on the road were kept: it shows how a Nakasendo post station really worked.
A restored cypress-wood bridge by the river, at the edge of the historic district.
From December to March the wooden street is covered in snow and left almost empty; it is bitterly cold, but it is when the place makes most sense.
Blocks of white granite polished by the river along a stretch of turquoise water, tied to the legend of Urashima Taro, the fisherman who opened the forbidden box.
The hot spring ryokan of Kiso-Fukushima are the nearest bathing option for anyone walking the Nakasendo in this area.
The Kiso valley is the base of the shugendo cult of Ontake, with thousands of stone steles raised by pilgrims. Important warning: the 2014 eruption caused 63 deaths; part of the summit section remains closed, a helmet is compulsory and the season runs from June to October.
A shrine from 1355 at the end of the village and, beside it, a slope with 200 jizo statues lined up among the trees.
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