10-Day Japan Itinerary: Walking the Nakasendō and Kumano Kodō

There’s so much to see in Japan beyond the default Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka itinerary. I’ve explored and hiked all over the country, so I’ve put together a slower-paced route here — much of it on foot, along roads that were built for walking in the first place.

It’s a 10-day loop built around two of them: the Nakasendō through the Kiso Valley, and the sacred Kumano Kodō across the Kii Peninsula, with a few city stops in between to keep things varied.

The route at a glance

Days 1–2: Walk the Nakasendō

The Nakasendō was one of the Edo-period highways linking Tokyo and Kyoto, and its best-preserved stretch runs between two wooden post towns in Nagano Prefecture. The walk from Magome to Tsumago is a gentle 8 km and takes about 4 hours — no boots required, and there are a few teahouses along the way.

Both tourist offices will forward your bag to the other end for ¥1,000 a piece (roughly late March to the end of November) — the best money you’ll spend all trip. Stay two nights at Takimi House, a family-run ryokan (traditional inn) where your party is the only guest and the owner — a charismatic former Tokyo chef — cooks dinner over the irori sunken hearth in front of you. Ours featured wild boar and a quiz on which unusual meats we’d tried.

Getting there

• Tokyo to Nagoya: Tōkaidō Shinkansen, about 1 hour 40 minutes.
• Nagoya to Nakatsugawa: the Limited Express Shinano takes 45 minutes and costs about ¥2,500 (all seats are reserved); the rapid train takes 1 hour 15 minutes for around ¥1,320.
• Nakatsugawa to Magome: local bus, 25 minutes, about ¥800.
• Coming back: from Tsumago it’s a 15-minute bus (or 45-minute walk) to Nagiso, then a local train to Nakatsugawa and an express on to Nagoya.

Pro tip: Takimi House will collect you by car from JR Nagiso Station or Tsumago-juku, which saves the fiddliest connection of the day. Check-in is after 3 p.m. and check-out is at noon.

Days 3–5: Kyoto, for the gardens

Kyoto is regularly in the news for overtourism, but you don’t need to go far off the beaten path to escape the crowds. Spend the first day walking the Philosopher’s Path through Higashiyama: Ginkaku-ji for the moss and the raked sand cone, Hōnen-in for the mossy gate and the free entry, Nanzen-ji for the rock garden and the Meiji-era brick aqueduct, and Eikan-dō for the pond.

Day two goes west for the big zen set pieces — Ryōan-ji, Tenryū-ji, and Tōfuku-ji. None of them takes more than an hour, so it’s a comfortable day even with the bus rides between.

Then one night in Osaka, mostly for the food and the neon along Dōtonbori, because you want an early train south the next morning.

Getting there

• Kiso Valley to Kyoto: back to Nagoya, then the Shinkansen — about 2 hours all in.
• Around Kyoto: the Philosopher’s Path day is walkable end to end. For the western gardens, buses 5 and 17 run from Kyoto Station; Ryōan-ji is a 10-minute walk from Ryōan-ji Station on the Keifuku Kitano line.
• Kyoto to Osaka: 15 minutes by Shinkansen, or about 30 minutes on a local train for a fraction of the price.

Days 6–8: The Kumano Kodō

The Kumano Kodō is a network of pilgrimage routes over the mountains of the Kii Peninsula, walked for more than a thousand years and one of only two pilgrimage trails on the UNESCO World Heritage list — the other is Spain’s Camino de Santiago.

Take the Nakahechi route over 3 days, shrine to shrine, sleeping in family-run minshuku (guesthouses) along the way. It finishes at Nachi-no-Taki, a 133 m drop of water beside a vermilion pagoda, which is about as good as a finish line gets.

Getting there

• Osaka to Kii-Tanabe: roughly 2 hours by limited express from Tennoji Station. Go early — this is why you slept in Osaka.
• Kii-Tanabe to Takajiri (the trailhead): bus from outside the station, about 40 minutes. The visitor center at Kii-Tanabe is worth a stop first.
• Direct from Tokyo is about 6 hours, which is precisely why it’s better as a leg of a longer trip.

Days 9–10: Stop somewhere quiet

End at Sasayuri-ann, a 200-year-old thatched kominka (old farmhouse) above the Akame falls on the Nara–Mie border. You rent the whole house: an irori in the plank floor, a chef at the hearth, rice terraces out the window, and nobody else for several fields in any direction.

Getting there

• Nachi to Nabari: about 4 hours — the Nachisan Line bus from Nachi-no-Taki-mae, the JR Nanki limited express up the coast, then a Kintetsu limited express inland. Around ¥8,360.
• Nabari to the house: roughly 15 minutes by taxi.
• Getting home: Nabari to Tokyo is about 3 hours 20 minutes via Kintetsu and the Shinkansen, around ¥14,680.

What it costs

Transport is the bulk of it. The two long transfers at the end are the priciest legs, and neither is fully covered by a Japan Rail Pass — Kintetsu is a private railway.

It’s 4 hours from Nachi and about 3 hours 20 minutes back to Tokyo — close enough to the end that you’ll be glad you stopped. Ten days, two old roads, and not much of it at speed.