We had an early breakfast - Japanese buffet with Western influences and were on the trail by 8:15. We walked by a variety of upscale weekend or summer homes through a marvelous open deciduous forest. Many of the leaves had turned golden and red. it was a most pleasant walk.
At the pass, we hung out at a viewpoint that looked out onto the "Alps" including several "mounts."k All of the intrepretative signs were in Japanese so we can't tell you which ones we saw. It was clouding and hazy (rains are coming) but still impressive in multiple ranks. There were a cafes at the pass along with a temple. One of the cafes has pictures of John Lennon when he visited with Yoko.
We decended from the pass on a rather narrow, undeveloped trail first through a more dense decidious forest then into cypress and cedar.
There was some history of battles, the first police station and bandits which were hinted at in our walking guide but all of the signs were in Japanese. We know a few symbols/characters, particulerly the ones for "Nakasendo," but not many others. Betsy has concluded that the walking guide has room for improvement. We got a chance to lok at the guide Walk Japan, specifically Jamie (our tour leader on Kumano Kodo) is developing for their upcoming self-guided Nakasendo trip and it is much better. We may offer him some of our observations via email.
After getting down the near Yokokawa, we followed a rail-to-trail conversion through a tunnel, past an old, defunct power station and into town. We missed a checkpoint, originally used to check for unauthorized travelers on the route. We reach the station, had a snack and boarded a local train to Takasaki. We then caught the next Shinkasen Bullet Train to Tokyo Station. We transferred to the subway for two stops to arrive at Shimbashi Station and walked to the Park Hotel. We felt good, we were seasoned travelers back in the big city.
The Park Hotel is very nice. It is in the Tokyo Media Building. Reception is on floor 25; our room is on floor 28. All of the rooms above reception are on the outside of a triangular building creating a 10 story atrium in the middle.
We cleaned up and went for dinner. We first scoped out some skyview restaurants on the 41st and 42nd floors, but found them too pricey and not to or liking. We ended up at an Indian restaurant which was very good. It was nice to use a knife and fork, while sitting at a table.
We came back to the hotel by way of a large clock/sculpture that "activated" at 8:00 pm. It was quirky and not flashy. Betsy says it represents precursor or evolution underlying the high-tech city/nation that Japan is today.
Love the photos and history!! Can't say I would be too crazy about those Japanese breakfasts though!
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