We enjoyed a leisurely morning and delicious breakfast at our onsen before heading back out onto the Nakasendo Trail. The hospitality we received continued to be second to none as the owner personally drove us to the start of the day’s hike. Along the way we got to learn more about him and his family – he has nine siblings and his family has owned this home for over 100 years!

Something we forgot to mention yesterday was the earthquake alarm that everyone in Japan received. During our hike everyone’s phones made an alarm sound and an AI voice alerted us that a massive 9.9 magnitude earthquake had been detected to the north of the main island of Honshu. We didn’t experience any earth movement and as we found out today it was a false alarm, but many people on the trail hunkered down. In reality, there was an earthquake but it was only a magnitude 4.2 and the alarm was caused by a faulty conversion which resulted in an alarm for what would have been the strongest earthquake on record. That would have certainly altered our blog yesterday!

For today’s adventure we continued along the Nakasendo Trail which followed the Kiso River. Unfortunately this stretch, as with many others, has been converted into a highway. We continued along this noisier route for several miles before diverting off onto a spur route which took us through a quiet farming village and a picturesque gorge and mountain pass. Unlike the first day on the trail our path today was far less traveled as we only encountered around 20 people along the way. We very much enjoyed a closer connection to nature on this leg of the journey.

After completing our journey from Nagiso to Nojiri we hopped on a local commuter train to make our way over to Kiso-Fukushima where we are staying at another onsen. Unlike our first night’s accommodation this onsen caters to many more travelers and as a result offers both public as well as private onsens for its patrons. Dinner was a multiple course meal of traditional Japanese cuisine and local delicacies. It is a good thing we didn’t have any lunch today as the quantity of food continues to be staggering.

To conclude our evening we hopped on a shuttle bus for a “Starry Night” tour to enjoy a night sky which is free from the intense city lights which block out all but the strongest stars from our view. Tomorrow we will be heading back to Kiso-Fukushima in the morning to explore the town before hopping on another commuter train to head to the start of our final hike along the Nakasendo.

Don’t forget to check out our Gallery if you want to see more pictures from our trip!