Nakasendo Trail

A post town on the Nakasendo highway in Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture. Japan's longest preserved post town with Edo-period streetscape extending about 1km, designated an Important Preservation District. The continuous row of wooden houses with lattice doors offers a time-slip experience, highly popular with international visitors.

A Nakasendo post town in Nagiso, Nagano Prefecture. The site of Japan's first townscape preservation movement, perfectly maintaining Edo-period atmosphere. The approximately 8km hiking course to neighboring Magome-juku is enormously popular with international trekkers, becoming a sacred destination for walking Japan's old roads.

Sixty-seven post towns flourished along the Nakasendo during the Edo period, connecting Edo and Kyoto. Historic settlements like Tsumago and Magome preserve traditional architecture and stone-paved streets. Once bustling with daimyo processions and pilgrims, the route is experiencing revival as a pilgrimage and heritage tourism destination.

An ancient pilgrimage network registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under 'Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range.' The trails linking the three Kumano grand shrines share a sister-road partnership with Spain's Camino de Santiago.

The most important of the five major highways connecting Edo and Kyoto along the Pacific coast. Made world-famous by Hiroshige's 'Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido,' its 53 post towns still preserve historical traces. It also served as the blueprint for the modern Tokaido Shinkansen route.

Historic post towns on the Nakasendo road preserving Edo-period atmosphere in the Kiso Valley. Tsumago, Japan's first town to undertake streetscape preservation, and Magome with its beautiful stone-paved slopes are connected by a hiking route popular with international tourists.

One of the five major Edo-period highways, connecting Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto over approximately 540 kilometers. Now developed as a 1,020-kilometer hiking course, with preserved post towns, particularly Tsumago and Magome in Nagano Prefecture. Attracting approximately 500,000 visitors annually, it is an important tourism route offering authentic Edo-period culture and landscapes.