In mid-May we went to Japan to walk the Nakasendo. My office mate took the walking trip with a tour company and loved it. It was the kind of vacation we like: great scenery, wonderful culture and great food. But, we like traveling independently and wanted to do it on our own. How hard could it be? Turns out, there's not much information in English so it was quite a challenge to put the trip together.
The Nakasendo is a 530 km trail that connects Kyoto and Tokyo. It was one of 5 official routes in the Edo period for the use of shoguns and daimyos. A total of 69 post towns were set up along the route. While quite a bit of the "Middle Mountain" route has been paved over with highways, there are still segments that travel through mountain passes and some of the post towns still exist.
I wasn't able to find any guide books in English. I ended up piecing together the trip by searching the web.
http://www.walkjapan.com/tour/nakasendo-way/
http://www.okujapan.com/walking-tours/nakasendo-trail/index.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/travel/20japanhike.html?_r=0
http://www.nakasendoway.com
http://546km.blogspot.com
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